“When and why did the idea first occur to you to take toys as your inspiration?
I began using toys as my central material about five years ago, it started in my studio in Cornwall and began simply from a few moments that I spent staring into into my childrens cast off toy boxes which happened to be stored there. I responded to the variety of colours and forms they presented, the random juxtapositions, and the non rational ‘meanings’ that those combinations started to take on My work over several years had usually incorporated elements from my immediate environment, everything from whole books magazines and twigs collaged into paintings t, scrap building timber furniture and tree waste into sculptures. There are many reasons for choosing scrap, the obvious first one being financial. I have always enjoyed working on a physically large scale, paintings that you could feel that you could enter, sculptures larger than life. For some time I was making pyrotechnical fire sculptures in parallel to the more permanent pieces so it would have been wasteful to use new flammables. I have always disliked the blandness of many traditional sculptural materials clay bronze stone plaster etc. I like materials that are more obviously malleable, that have already had a life, have been part of other peoples lives. To me the fact that these things have been used ,touched by humans for other reasons than making art automatically adds depth to the work by giving it a history both separate to the work and integrated within it. The toys are mini sculptures designed by uncredited people. It is both theft and accreditation.”
via The Cool Hunter