Working Methods: 'This S(c)epic Isle' - Cardboard Box Sculptures & Reliefs

Currently Untitled, (Work In Progress), Salvaged Cardboard Box, MDF, Screen-Print, Paper Collage,
Acrylics, French Polish, P.V.A., Adhesive Packing Tape

My apologies for the paucity of posts, over recent weeks.  The reason is simply that I’ve chosen to spend every valuable spare hour getting stuck into my work – tending to neglect various other duties as a consequence.  However, there’s only so long I can expect the select few who actually take an interest in my creative efforts (for which - many thanks), to stay engaged without at least something new to look at.  Here then, are some current work in progress shots – to give a few clues, at the very least.

Currently Untitled, (Work In Progress), Salvaged Cardboard Box, MDF, Screen-Print, Paper Collage,
Acrylics, French Polish, P.V.A., Adhesive Packing Tape

I may have mentioned a little while back that I was entering the sculptural phase of my ongoing ‘This S(c)eptic Isle’ project, and it appears I’m now well and truly dug in.  Working sculpturally is something of a departure for me - even if (as ever) what I choose to call sculpture is really just another bastardised, hybrid form of expression.  Indeed, what you see in these images is probably closer to someone like Robert Rauschenberg’s reconfiguration of street detritus than anything remotely resembling traditional sculpture per se.

 Cardboard Boxes In Various States of Development (Work In Progress), Salvaged Cardboard Boxes, MDF,
Screen-Print, Paper Collage, Acrylics, French Polish, P.V.A., Adhesive Packing Tape

Cardboard Boxes In Various States of Development (Work In Progress), Salvaged Cardboard Boxes, MDF,
Screen-Print, Paper Collage, Acrylics, French Polish, P.V.A., Adhesive Packing Tape

Cardboard Boxes In Various States of Development (Work In Progress), Salvaged Cardboard Boxes, MDF,
Screen-Print, Paper Collage, Acrylics, French Polish, P.V.A., Adhesive Packing Tape

Rauschenberg also famously worked with found cardboard boxes, although, in my defense, they have been a key motif in my own project from the start.  Either way, I’m doing my best to avoid simply aping him, and hopefully, it’s already apparent that my formal intentions and deliberate attention to treated surfaces, are leading me in a slightly different direction.

Cardboard Box Monolith, Experimental Mock-Up, (Work In Progress)

Proposed Cardboard Box Monolith, Experimental Mock-Up (Work In Progress)

What you see are very much tentative beginnings, being essentially just mock-ups (or even just literal piles) – and the main concern at present is that the overall stockpile should simply grow as large as possible, as quickly as possible.  It does look certain however, that the emerging monolithic column format will play a significant role as the work evolves, and that other boxes will be wall-mounted as reliefs - probably in clusters.  It’s also my intention that those at least (and possibly all) will act as carriers for screen-printed imagery, as suggested in the first examples here.

Proposed Cardboard Box Monolith, Experimental Mock-Up (work In Progress)

Proposed Cardboard Box Monolith, Experimental Mock-Up (Work In Progress)

Of course, the other point about working sculpturally is that there tends to be far more hard manual graft (and hours) involved, than with painting.  In case you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, each cardboard box is being given an internal MDF armature (essentially a box within the box).  I’m also getting through numerous rolls of brown gum strip, and many litres of PVA adhesive in an attempt to subtly modify the outer surfaces beyond their purely raw state.

 Cardboard Boxes In Various States of Development (Work In Progress), Salvaged Cardboard Boxes, MDF, 
 Paper Collage, Acrylics, French Polish, P.V.A., Adhesive Packing Tape

Cardboard Box Monolith, Experimental Mock-Up, (Work In Progress)

And the other reason for all this accelerating activity?  It’s now confirmed that I will be exhibiting again in mid September, in another joint show with my erstwhile partners in crime, Shaun Morris and Andrew Smith.  The show will be at Nottingham’s Surface Gallery, but more about all that when the time actually comes.  For now - those boxes won’t stack themselves… 

Treated Cardboard Box Surfaces (Detail), (Work In Progress), Salvaged Cardboard Boxes,
MDF, Paper Collage, Acrylics, French Polish, P.V.A., Adhesive Packing Tape