FOUND OBJECT ASSEMBLAGE PIECES

AMERICAN PLASTIC

I made this for some American friends when they got married. It's a classic painting and it's frequently parodied. It made sense to reinterpret it for them.

TREE OF LIFE

I made this piece for a friend for her 50th birthday. It's not from any painting and it was much easier to work freeform than from an existing picture. My friend is Buddhist so I wanted to make reference to that and have some meaningful stuff in it. I included the wheel, which spins, as well as a glow-in-the-dark plastic green Tara (the deity she follows). When the lights are off, she's the only thing you see. The tree is apparently very significant for Buddhist practice and is something to meditate on. I didn't know this. When I gave it to her she cried. Nice.

STRAWMAN

This guy is lifesize and made of drinking straws. Just straws and hot glue. Love hot glue. Is there anything it can't do?

VINCENT

Vincents nose is made of a Barbie leg. His cheeks are toy chicken legs. His wrapped up ear is half a brain from an human skull model. A toy grenade serves as a wooly hat lining. Hardly comforting. Strangely, his coat was probably the most time-consuming.

IF NOT FOR YOU

I asked my friends and family to collect used pill blister packs for me. Within weeks, I had boxes and boxes of them. It's hard to imagine how many pills are consumed by humans on a daily basis. My sister-in-law was being treated for breast cancer at the time and a large propotion of these packets are hers. I also had a student who was in and out of a psychiatric hospital who gave me bags of them when he was let out. Sadly, both of these people are now dead. Sometimes pills aren't enough. I like the ambiguity of the title of this piece. Without the people there would be no pills. Without the pills, there would be no people. If not for you.

THE ARNOLFINI MARRIAGE (AFTER EYCK)

I love the original of this painting. I have tried to be faithful to it. I was particularly happy to find a piece of green plastic that perfectly matched the pleats on the breast of her dress. I also used part of a "Lady Jane" comb on the window. Usually I wouldn't let any writing or decoration on the plastic be seen, but I figured it's a bit like a signature on this piece. The mirror took a while to find. It's the top portion of a lid from a fancy bottle of conditioner. That's me in the reflection taking the photo.

SEND IN THE CLOWNS

I really don't like clowns. Never have. They scare me. In a way this piece is about facing my fears. It is all wood. For some reason I'm uncomfortable about mixing wood and plastic. It's also a marble run. You can put a marble in the top right corner and it bounces it's way all the way down to the scary clown at the bottom left.

STEEL

This piece is all meatal bits. There might be a couple of plastic bits that look like metal, but mostly it's metal. The guy in the middle is called "Steel" according to the plastic stand he came with. I think he was a happy-meal givaway. Ironic that he's plastic. Classic McDonalds, calling plastic steel. This piece is a bit interractive. The bells jingle and the wheels spin. it's industry; action; warfare. Steel.

SAINT BARBIE

I never had a Barbie. I think I secretly wanted one, but to admit it would have resulted in unbearable mockery and potential Barbie torture from my brothers. I anthropomorphised all my soft toys and cried if they were thrown across a room. Barbie would have probably met with a far worse fate. (like Action Jackson, who was buried alive in a custom built casket under the Jacaranda). So, I took every opportunity to play with Amandas barbies. She had sisters, and only one brother. These Barbie products are from my daughters collection. I made up for my Barbie deprivation through her obsession when she was little.

AURORA

This piece is made from brushes I collected from work. They have all been ruined by students not washing them. the title is taken from one of the handles of a particularly cheap one. I like its celestial reference. This piece reminds me of the space warp thing they do in Star Trek.

CIRCLE GAME

Named from Joni Mitchell's song.

GOTHAM

People ask me if I paint the plastic. I don't. These are grey, white and black pieces. Unaltered. This was a bit of an experiment in perspective and creating depth. I think it looks like a aerial view of city buildings. The name is a reference to the proverbial town of Gotham. Not the Batman Gotham City, although I could imagine batman flying around this city.

GIVE US THIS DAY

This piece is made of bread tags. Each column represents a different bread tag design and colour. It is a statistical analysis of bread tags. Who would have imagined there were so many variations?