CMT Talks at Kinetica

Tim Hunkin’s talk ‘Popular Art’ (11th April 6pm) will be the first in a series of talks at Kinetica to coincide with the CMT retrospective and Ride of Life exhibition which starts on Friday 6th April. Tim’s Chiropodist (1986), originally made for CMT in Covent Garden, will be treating visitors’ feet throughout the exhibition, which runs until 5th May 2007.

Other talks include Will Jackson, Paul Spooner, as well as an evening with Sue Jackson and Sarah Alexander looking back over the past 28 years of CMT.

The Power of Love

We are thrilled to offer this new piece from Japanese automata maker, Kazu Harada, just in time for Valentines.
After studying Art History at university, Kazu worked mainly as a computer operator. He started making automata as a hobby in 2002 and came to England last September, as he says, ‘to meet great automata makers and develop my automata making skills’.

Paul Spooner’s ‘The Life of Marat’

Paul Spooner has just finished a great new piece called ‘The Life of Marat’, in which we find Marat sitting in his bath (fashioned from a piece of lead donated by a neighbour), turning the pages of ‘The People’s Friend’ – the cover of which has a rather gruesome picture of Charlotte Corday. On careful inspection the viewer will see that Spooner has also made the mirror image of Marat, his newspaper and the duck upside down in the bath.

Spooner’s inscription on the piece is as follows:-

‘ ‘Jean Paul Marat’ – Born in Switzerland, but thrown out for being spotty, is seen here taking a bath in Revolutionary France, he is reading an English version of his newspaper, “L’Ami du Peuple”.

Simon Schama has got wind of this and is putting on his own programme about the original painting of Marat in his bath by David in this week’s BBC2 programme, ‘The Power of Art’. (Friday 10th November – 7.30pm)

Matt Smith Exhibit in Sheffield

Matt Smith has produced a brilliant series of automata exhibits for the newly opened Weston Park Museum in Sheffield. The pieces are part of the new ‘Life and Times‘ gallery and depict many of the past occupations in the local area. This is the clogger (a latter day shoemaker).

Matt’s long awaited new Fourteen Balls Design will be announced later this year as part of our ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ Virtual Exhibition.

Spooner Talk at Trelowarren 12th Sept 2006 6.30pm

Book a place, (a snip at £5) at Paul Spooner’s forthcoming talk at Trelowarren, Cornwall.

You will be thoroughly entertained as Paul discusses his pieces in the current ‘Smile’ exhibition, as well as an almost complete history of everything else he has ever made.. including the lovely ‘Das Fischermadchen’ (2005) pictured.

The Fisher Girl’s skirt is filled with 27 tiny painted fish, which gently undulate as the handle is turned.

Note: If you are planning to go there pay careful attention to the map before you set off, my visit last week was considerably delayed by visiting the village of Gweek three times.

New Hunkin Telescope excites Pier Visitors

Tim Hunkin revealed the latest machine for his Under the Pier Show in Southwold, Suffolk, earlier this week.

As Hunkin says, ‘The problem with ordinary seaside telescopes is that they are monotonous. The Quantum Tunnelling Telescope solves this problem by concentrating on interesting events over the horizon, under the waves and into the future’.

Markey and Spooner in ‘Smile’ Exhibition

‘Smile’ is the title of the current exhibition from the Cornwall Crafts Association at Trelowarren until 17th September 2006.
The exhibition includes Paul Spooner’s ‘The Dormitory’ (Private Collection) a new piece (pictured) which Spooner describes as a female version of his 1983 piece The Dream. The label refers to the English practice of turning their children into orphans by sending them off to boarding school as soon as they are house-trained. Also on show is a new Piano Player from Peter Markey.

A Day in the Life of Paul Spooner

Featured in the current (July/August 2006) edition of ‘Modern Painters’ magazine, novelist Geoff Nicholson catches up with Paul Spooner and finds him creating blasphemous automata (Pictured – ‘Faith and Reason’ 2006, Private Collection) and throwing his mistakes into a woodburning stove. It follows on nicely from Nicholson’s catalogue introduction to Paul’s exhibition ‘A Day at the Butchers’ (2004).
Note: If you manage to get a copy of the magazine, the photo used in the article, (not this one) was taken by Tim Hunkin, using a camera made out of a large road sign, hence the hallucinatory quality.