CHRIS DOBROWOLSKI
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'Siren': commission for the Ferens gallery exhibition 'All at Sea'

Picture
'Siren' installed as part of 'All at Sea' , Ferens gallery, 1998
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The viewer is drawn to the open box on the top of the stack... 
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...in the middle of the painting there's a porthole...​ 
Picture
​

...as you look into the darkness a light comes on. The base of each wooden box has been cut away so you can see all the way through down to the floor. At the bottom a record player begins to play,...  ​
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...the music echoes up through here.  

​(click play below to listen to the music)
Commissioned for the 'Ferens art gallery' exhibition 'All at Sea', 1998. Curated by Anne Bukantas the exhibition was a showcase for the Ferens gallery's extensive maritime art collection. It contained many historical paintings, some of which were over 400 years old.  The role my work played in the show was to represent  'contemporary' maritime art. I was the only artist in the exhibtion who was still alive!. 

I always say that my credentials for being a 'contemporary maritime artist' stem from the fact that many years earlier I was sent to Hull to be an art student.  Like a modern day Robinson Crusoe I collected driftwood from the river estuary and built a boat to try and escape...a student project that I still regard as my seminal work!      
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'Seascape Escape' my attempt to escape from art college in a boat made of driftwood in 1989.
Picture
Herbert Drapers 'Ulysses and the Sirens' , a large painting in the Ferren's collection. from 1909
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.Not' the basement of the Ferens but a generic municipal sculpture collection in a dark corner of a museum somewhere.
A prestigious commission; part of the arrangement was that after the show the work would become part of the Ferens gallery collection. On my first visit the curator and her assistant took me to the basement where the art collection is kept and gave me my brief.

"... Obviously we don't want to tell you what to make exactly but bare in mind this is all the space we have left in storage ... just don't make it any bigger than this!"   

The basement of the Ferrens felt a bit like the hold of a cargo ship that didn't go anywhere. Like an ancient shipwreck it was a time capsule of treasures - Old art that had 'also' been contemporary once!  I took a quick look around; there were some important artist's names in the collection. Honoured company for my work to share the darkness with for many years to come. This encounter with the past and view of my future became the inspiration for the piece. ​
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Some influencial visual source material for my work - Random crates with art inside.
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Sketch from my re-discovered notes.
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Picture
Sketch from my re-discovered notes.
When the commission was completed I scribbled some sketches and notes about the work to explain my thought process to Anne Bukantas. I wasn't obliged to do this I just suffer a lot from imposter syndrome and I thought I needed to justify myself.  A few years later I was amazed and amused to find my notes were on the internet being used as a learning resource for art students. I never kept a copy of these notes myself so it was nice to be able to download them from a young art students online contextual studies blog. The notes are reproduced below.     
The last page of notes has a list of song titles I had considered for the music to go inside 'Siren'. They include a song by the singer 'David Whitefield', a local of Hull who had had his heyday in the 1950's. I'd heard of him only because his records would sometimes appear in the second hand record shop at the end of the road where I lived in Hull as a student. Unfortunately I couldn't find a David Whitefield record with a maritime theme that was the right tempo. However I liked this element of chance and discovery in the process of finding the right song.  A process that resonated and felt in keeping with an artwork that was going to be laying undiscovered in a basement for many years. The piece of music I eventually chose, 'Stowaway ' by Barbara Lyon was one of many 78 records that I bought on car boot sales with a nautical sounding title.  It sounded right but importantly 'a stowaway' also echoed the imposter syndrome notions I had throughout the process of making this work.  ​
  • Home
  • in the art gallery
    • Transit Transition >
      • Train Wave
      • The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
      • Self Evaluation
      • something About Global Capitalism But Less Ernest
      • The Man From Human Resources Is Coming to See You
      • The Ofsted Inspection
      • The Risk Assessment
      • Personal development training day
      • My Matchbox Toy Lorry
      • The Zero Hours Contract
      • The Plinth
    • Remnants Of Utopia >
      • Austerity Miniature Mayday Parade
      • The Contract
      • Agitprop/anti-agitprop Train
      • Siberia
      • How We Won The War
      • Revolutionary Reminder
      • The Marketing Team
    • Antarctica >
      • Project Outline
      • Antarctica Essay
      • Reviews
      • Sledge
      • Toy Sledge
      • Airfix Antarctic Aeroplane Hoover
      • Eating Penguins
      • The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
      • Toy Snowmobile
      • Rat Box, Bird Island
      • Rejection Letters
      • The Last Roll Of Kodachrome In The World
      • John Deere Gator And Specimen
      • There Are No More Dogs In Antarctica
      • Furthest South- J C B
      • Captain Scotts Bookshelf
      • Antarctic Toy Portraits
    • Landscape, Seascape, Skyscape , Escape >
      • Seascape Escape (No.1)
      • Landscape Escape (No.1)
      • Seascape Escape (No.2)
      • Timescape Escape
      • Landscape Escape (No.2) >
        • Sketches for Tank
      • Skyscape Escape
      • Essay/ Catalogue >
        • Introduction
        • Seascape Escape
        • Landscape Escape No. 1
        • Seascape Escape No.2
        • Landscape Escape No.2
        • Skyscape Escape
        • Timescape Escape
        • End-Piece
      • Reviews and Press
    • Offer Must End Soon >
      • Essay Jess Twyman
      • Reviews
      • Offer Must End Soon
      • Buy My Painting!
      • "Buy My Painting!" For the hard of hearing.
      • "Don't Make Me Take It All Back Home With Me!"
      • How We Won The War
      • "Stop me and buy one!"
      • 'The Cornfield'... free gift inside
      • "Catalogue!"
      • The Contemporary Art Scene
      • Camera Crash
      • "Untitled" hanging itself
      • Buy My Fucking Painting!
      • Absolut Ship !
      • Executive Toy!
      • Art Stunt Suicide Disaster
      • Roll up, Roll up. Get your Art here!
    • Big Country >
      • Big Country
      • The box you stick your head into
      • Europa, Hoek van Holland to Vladivostok
      • Caravans
      • magazine article
    • All at Sea
    • & Model >
      • Reviews
    • Give Me The Money
    • Music and domestic appliances >
      • Sketch for aeroplane
      • The Plinth
      • Cold War Monument
      • Wagon Wheels
      • Vacuum Cleaner Circle
    • ...on the wall...in boxes >
      • My Shitty Studio No.2
      • Sketch for aeroplane No.6
      • Landscape, Seascape, Skyscape, Fire Escape
      • My horrible studio No.1
      • Untitled 240 Volts
      • On the way to the beach party
      • Toy Me No.2
      • It's for you
    • Sweet Jars, glass cases on books >
      • Thatcher
      • The council estate is coming
      • Attack drone and books
      • Muck Spreader
      • Trojan Horse
      • Security Camera
      • Move
      • Epsom Printer, Tank, God
      • Contemporary art- its the law!
      • Tank Caravans Paint Brush
      • Buy to Let
      • Section 21
  • On The Stage
    • All Roads Lead To Rome >
      • Project outline
      • reviews
    • Antarctica >
      • Project Outline
      • Reviews
    • Poland 3 Iran 2 >
      • Project Outline
      • Reviews
    • Landscape, Seascape, Skyscape , Escape >
      • Project Outline
      • Reviews
      • tours and extra stuff
    • How NOT to make a living as an Artist
    • Toy Stories
  • Outside the art gallery
    • Auspicious Phoenix Recycling Palace
    • Covid lockdown with Boris >
      • Boris zip wire
      • Covidtrix
      • what is the truth but a lie agreed upon
    • Goat Train
    • washed up Car - go >
      • Project Outline
      • Reviews
      • 'EK52 UDP'
      • 'VK02 GFK'
      • 'Y194 LPP'
      • Washed Up Car-go (Hastings)
      • Washed Up Car- go (Brighton)
    • Vanishing Point >
      • Project Outline
      • Reviews
      • Red Sports Car, East To West
      • Studebaker Camera Car, Going To The Beach
      • Kite And Candy, Buick
      • Kennedy Lincoln Continental
      • Ambulance Emergency
      • Pink Mustang, at the Golden Gate Bridge
      • Matchbox
      • Instant Gratification
    • Badgast Residency >
      • Short Essay
      • De Wrede Zee
      • Fish
      • Chips
      • Windmill
      • Panorama Mesdag
    • Selfie Slot Car Racing >
      • Project Outline
      • Film by Andy Wiltshire
      • Librarian Pit Crew
      • Experiments with sound
      • Selfie Slot Car Racing at Firstsite Gallery
      • Flitwick Library
    • Coventry Transport Museum Residency >
      • Coventry Concept
      • Poetry Vending Machine
    • Cheap Cheap >
      • Review
    • A Portrait of Casper DeBoer
    • Cranes
    • Hessle Road Residency >
      • Hessle Road (continued)
    • Reisbureau Mareado >
      • Mareado (Continued)
      • City magazine review
    • Windmills >
      • Aerial, wind, sun and radio
      • Guitar Played by the Wind >
        • Winners and Losers
      • Self Portrait
      • Jesus punches banker
    • Performance Sculptures >
      • The groundsman
      • All seeing bicycle lamp
      • Pasta 4 one
      • Revolutionary Reminder
  • publications
    • Solo projects >
      • Escape >
        • Read an Extract
      • Antarctica
      • Offer Must End Soon
      • Tangents
      • Landscape, Seascape, Skyscape , Escape
      • Aerial, wind, sun and radio
    • Group Projects >
      • oceans
      • Talk to me
      • & Model
      • Middlesbrough Art Weekender
      • Translating the Street
      • 1st Sino/british Cont. Art, Yentai
      • Performance, Transport And Mobility
      • Inbetween PS1, New York and Shanghai
      • Odd Coupling
      • Landscapes of Exploration
      • Flip Shift Show Switch
      • Baudrillard Now
      • The Juddykes
      • Dr Roberts Magic Bus
      • Continental Breakfast
      • Lat (living Apart Together)
      • North. Amsterdam 2004
      • Westwijk, Vlaardingen, De Strip
      • Da Da Da Strategies Against Marketecture
      • Reisburo Mareado (The Travel Brochure)
      • Catalogus Mareado
      • Kunst Over De Grens
      • This Flat Earth
      • The Uses of an Artist
      • Kettles Yard Open 97
      • Royal College Of Art Centenary Year
      • Millennium Encyclopedia
    • Press
  • About / contact
    • Biog
    • CV >
      • Solo Exhibitions
      • Live Art
      • Residencies / Commissions
      • Group Exhibitions
      • Education
      • Career History
      • Media Coverage
    • Contact
    • are you on the right website?