I have built gang huts since I was eight.
We used to go down to the Thames at Hammersmith and pick up drift-wood to use.
We would then sit in them and smoke cigarettes, hold meetings, drink cider, that kind of thing.
I had a periscope that I would instal that we could as a look out.
Inside the "Wendy House", constructed on our return from India in 1981.
Still standing and semi useful although riddled with woodworm.
Post-India L.S.A. meeting in a very old cottage, Shipping Hill, Narberth, 1982
The best studio I have ever inhabited, right in the middle of Cardiff, with huge windows opening out over the City (to the right) It was half of an ex-pool-hall.
Unfortunately these are the only photos I possess.
Small poster for a big show in a surprisingly large octagonal gallery.
Studio, George Road, Erdington
Stick house in the woods above the monastery at Macuntleth 99
"INSIDE" ST MARTIN'S IN THE BULLRING
A SHOW OF DIRECTIONALS SUMMER 2002
The cock on top of a metal tower, suited to go in a back garden. The hierarchy decided that it was too scruffy to go as near to the entrance as it did, maybe it was their reaction to all the building work going on outside.
Myself, I think it looks fantastic!
So good, I named it twice.
I know this page is about homes for spirits as it were, but here and there I will add the odd spirit that I have defined.
Its hard for me to stick religiously to the rules.
Small part of a clock tower with many clocks.
The Anti Ego Tower and the Music Box
He used to have a shop down the road, (what a name!)
Light tower, built to go with the windows inside the church.
But to seem lighter looking out from the inside than the other way round.
The roof was made from a belt my father gave to my mother from Indonesia at the end of the second word war.
THRONE ROOM, X-RAY FACTORY, SMETHWICK 04
More part of a movement.
A group of artists of various ability and discipline took over a factory and made it a going concern.
Unfortunately, the whole thing wasn't taken as far as it should have gone.
This is my throne room, designed in wood and metal for all to sit in equality regardless of anything - 7 thrones: seven equal noble occupants.
LIVE/WORK 1, X-RAY FACTORY, 05
Application design for the first Live/Work project in the X-Ray factory, Smethwick, 2004.
It bears no resemblance to what I finally ended up making.
Which was in fact a life size punch and Judy stage, in this shot it is not yet complete.
To the right of the stage is the kitchen area that Joe Johnson and I built one afternoon.
On top of the roof there are my homages to Miro, cut out at great heat with a plasma cutter. (no home should be without one)
The backstage hanging which later became a banner entitled "Maze".
A good general layout of "my" corner of the factory.
Around the corner from the main bit of the show was the cubicle where people used to clock in. It was like half a room with a little square window. The room housed my tent city very well and was only visible as you stood directly outside the window. A bit of a shock.
The thing came from Thailand it was a carnival like tent-town on the edge of some waters, it had an
un-earthly feel about it, a bit like a place for dead people to rest in.
A wayside temple from Kerala added as a kind of punctuation mark.
My first idea for this came directly at the end of the first Live/Work project 2004.
For the duration of the actual event it had rained - all the buildings we had created were parked mainly outside or in a partially covered area.
Rather than having built a small theatre, I commented that I would much rather have made something to get out of the rain in.
In fact something that had been waterproof from the word go.
UTOPIA, THE CHAMELEON GALLERY.
WALSAL 05
Part of a show that was part of the process of helping Alan Cheezeman sort out a gallery space in his jewelry factory in Walsal. There were about five of us and we also staged a show, we felt that utopia ought to be a safe enough bet as a title.
The column on the right was made in Solihul by a kind of self-help group under the eye of Sue Rider.
The mosaic came from above my bath and is still there.
The octagonal thing with the nipple was from the throne room
A team of minor deities within the actual body of the organ striving to maintain maintenance.
LIVE/WORK 2, WEST BROM 2005
A couple of shots from the top of and inside of my tree house in the corner of the project site.
Where a merry time was had by many for the period of the project.
Shot needed of the tables layout (view to the right)
Broadside with Peter Hadfield.
I didn't build the drinks cabinet to the left.
Ramp leading to the steps up.
To the top
Underneath, with beams painted by Moshen Kienry
HEARTLANDS HOSPITAL CHILDREN'S GARDEN 04-06
Side view of the above design.
Kiosk from the previous Live/Work Project, Heartlands was a good place to move some of the stuff I had built onwards.
THE GREEN STREET SHOW
DIGBETH 2006
The Balti Chariot
Harry Palmer outside the office that Peter Hadfield and I built early summer 2007 at friction Arts in Digbeth in their gallery they called "The Edge"
THE CUBE SUMMERFIELDS ERDINGTON 2009
Rain Hut first built in my neighbours garden. This version hasn't had it's front steps fitted yet.
Summer 2009
Exhibited in the Cube, situated in an old Summerfields shop in the Square in Erdington High Street.
In a very different way, I was taken with how it fitted in with all the squares and diamonds in the shop.
Designs for a hut to use at the Rea Garden in Digbeth during the winter 2009.
The plan was to build it around a wood burning stove and simply add layers.
It was for a small arts council grant and unfortunately got rejected,
something I have maybe still yet to build.
THE CUBE 2010
ABOVE WILTON MARKET ERDINGTON
The inside of the hut I built as a kind of showpiece working space, although not the kind of area that I would ever consider really working in.
Mind I do hear, someone has occupied it and does work in it - - -
Built and filled to a large extent with objects found in the skips outside the market.
For me a treasure-trove of stuff.
This series of images is something I am still working on. I have an old, small tree skeleton and they are all designed to hang off it. I am taking my time over this one, I want them to be all quite different, each have it's own character as it were.
Birds nest made from wire wool, lined with cloth semi hardened with thin PVA medium.
Copper roof
They are mainly built from stuff I have found and hoarded. The bone roof on the bottom right one, I found by the sea at Tenby 2010
Inside my hut at the studio in Ladywood, it comes equipped with bed, old music system and small heater.
When working on large jobs I have used it to sleep in over-night in order to "hit the ground running" as it were first thing in the morning.
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