Working Methods: 'This S(c)eptic Isle: Childish Things 5'

All Images: 'Childish Things 5' (Work In Progress), Salvaged Trundle Toy & Spray Enamel

To be honest, I hadn't necessarily intended to make any more of these 'Childish Things', toy sculptures.  On purely practical level, they're pretty bulky to store, and the house is already pretty congested with the existing four (amongst a lot of other stuff).  In addition, whilst I've always felt generally positive about the 'Childish Things' pieces - they were, actually, the least commented upon element of my work, when exhibited, last year.

Nevertheless, when this little beauty was abandoned, practically on my doorstep - it just felt too much of a gift to ignore.  Of course one thing leads to another, and what would be the point of collecting such stuff - if not to use it constructively?  It's perhaps typical of my current, slightly unfocussed approach to my work, just now - that this one has reached its current state without excess urgency, and whilst working on other unrelated things. That in itself is quite pleasing - as the fettling and finishing of the toys themselves has always been the most labour intensive part of the 'Childish Things'.  The trike, as I found it, was actually even more complete than you see it here - allowing plenty of scope for some creative surgery, prior to the normally tedious prepping, priming and inevitable addressing of drips in my ham-fisted spray-job.

Another hunch was that the initial Brexity vibe of the 'TSI' project might be limiting its currency by now.  Would that were the case.  Even whilst working on the first flush of associated pieces - my instinct was to expand the scope of the project into a more open-ended 'how we live now' kind of enterprise wherever possible.  Two years ago, who could have honestly predicted that my fears of becoming tripped up by a narrow single issue might be so unfounded - or that the particular issue in question would consume the national debate in quite such a dispiriting manner.

If, as now seems inevitable, the ramifications of our current political crisis continue to ripple outwards for the foreseeable future - then adding to the existing 'TSI' work may not feel  quite so irrelevant after all.  There was always more that could have been done, and there is clearly still no shortage of raw material, or indeed national absurdity, to fuel it all.  And, if there is going to be more, I guess I should be looking for further opportunities to exhibit it all again, in the not too distant - assuming anyone can still afford to keep a gallery space open after March, of course...