CHRIS DOBROWOLSKI
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    • 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
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    • 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 >
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      • Residencies / Commissions
      • Group Exhibitions
      • Education
      • Career History
      • Media Coverage
    • Contact
    • are you on the right website?

Landscape Escape No.1

Picture
Still wishing to escape, the artist made the pedal car in the second year of his fine art course at Hull. 'As far as escaping is concerned, this was quite successful really,' he says, though he also reveals that a major motivation was to visit a girlfriend in Leicester. He searched scrap yards in an attempt to find a car that he could do something with. 'Strangely enough, I couldn't find anyone prepared to give me a car.' Having looked into the practicalities and costs of road tax he discovered that a pedal vehicle was not subject to tax - a distinct advantage. The pedal car was exhibited in London soon after it's completion in Fresh Art. It was part of Hull's participation in a national exhibition of student work from art schools. Dobrowolski and Eddie pedalled the piece (accompanied by Leo on a bike) from Hull to London for the exhibition but found the experience of seeing it in an art gallery context troubling.

The whole show was depressing. It was an Art Fair. I'd never actually tried to resolve my work in that kind of context before. It was just completely wrong. The getting there was more useful and interesting than the being there.

For him the relationship between the car and landscape - a common theme in his work was essential. More than that, the experience of travelling in it was part of the work.

Crossing the Fens the car made perfect sense. There was this funny big car that was no good on hills - a romantic little dot in the landscape. That's when it made sense. When we went through the Fens in mid-summer it was hot. I remember wearing sun glasses and taking off our T-shirts and making turbans out of them. For two days we saw nothing but field after field of cabbages. We crossed the most fertile part of the country as if it was a desert. Images of Lawrence of Arabia came to mind at the time.

In addition to the ideological problems he has had with the art world, a major problem has been how to present the objects (vehicles) which, unlike traditional sculpture or installations, are, for the artist, not complete in themselves. They are evidence of something larger of which they are a part. In the Fresh Art exhibition Dobrowolski felt that, 'all you had was a novelty seaside car which wasn't what it was all about at all. The depth is from the context and the romantic element "out there"."

In this exhibition, ten years later, the artist has addressed this problem by including with each vehicle elements which give some sense of the landscape context and of the adventure. In this case the car's headlights illuminate two photographs of the car on its journey. The use of the headlights is an attempt to bring the car and the photographs together rather than being seen as art object and accompanying documentation. 'It's vital for me that they are joined by the spotlight. An art gallery has spotlights - these are spotlights that are on a car. They are physically, but not physically, together.'

Of course, most works in galleries were once part of a context from which they have been isolated - even if that context was the artist's studio. (The artist's relationship with a work is always tangentially related to that of the spectator.) Our great museums are filled with 'works of art', which we now treat as specimens of a common kind, but which once had meanings and were part of lives which we cannot know. Despite our inability to fully share Dobrowoslki's relationship with these vehicles, as objects they are potent material for our own imaginary events and adventures. We interact with them in the construction of personal odyssies, explore them as conundrums for which we attempt our own solutions. Our attention oscillates between analysis and intuition - perhaps akin to a child's exploration of new toys.

Again, this took so long to build, by the time I'd finished it the girl in question had graduated and left her art college anyway. I never did go to Leicester on it. I went to the coast. At the mouth of the Humber there's a nice thirty mile drive along the North bank of the river and I went out there on my first excursion. I got stopped by the police. The police are the antithesis of what you do in art schools - talking about labels and pigeon-holing. They never question convention and have to follow the letter of the law. He'd obviously seen it and thought, 'That doesn't fit into any of my categories. Must be illegal.' So he stopped me - pulled us over - me and my friend Eddie. And he said, 'No. No. You're not serious.' And, of course, I'd had all of this sort of, like, hippie teaching about integrity and doing things for real and I said, 'No, very serious man.' But I had him on a technicality 'cos it doesn't say anywhere in the Highway Code, 'You must be serious at all times' does it? Then he came up with a sort of nothing word. He said, 'It's reckless'. We're on a two seater pedal car doing no more than ten miles an hour, hardly reckless. By this time two police cars had stopped. They conferred with one another and they allowed us to go the back way which, in a lot of ways, was quite nice - passing fields of bright yellow oil seed rape. However, it added three hours onto the journey.

                                                                                           .............................................

The following year, when I graduated, I packed up all my belongings on the pedal car and left the art college for good and went home to Essex on it. It took me about a week. We had a tent and a big trunk on the back, sleeping bag and everything under the bonnet. But before I went I thought I'd better clarify this technicality of whether it was legal or not. So I went to the police station and said, 'I've got this two seater, four wheeled pedal car. Is it legal on the road?' And he said, 'Come back in half an hour. We'll have VIB waiting for you.' I said, 'What?' 'Vehicle Inspection Branch'. They turned up in their own van with VIB on the back and clip boards. They spent about half an hour looking it over and they said, 'We're not sure. We'll have to look in our books.' In the end I rang them up and they said, 'Yeah, alright, go.' But of course I didn't tell 'em I was going to London.​
                                                                                            .............................................

There was, like, a graduate show called Fresh Art. It was probably the first one of those. We were going to that. The whole point was that we would turn up for the show on the pedal car which was to be an exhibit. We did a detour to go to Braintree to see my Mum and Dad who were highly amused. My Dad phoned up my brother and said, 
'Christopher's come home on his bloody work of art!' We turned up at Fresh Art a couple of days later. We'd slept the night in Epping Forest and got up early to get into London before the rush hour. We got there so early the place wasn't open. We were met by a security guard who said, 'You can't leave that there.' We said, 'Can't we put it in the car park?' He said, 'Oh no. That's managers only in there.' I got quite indignant at this point and said, 'Look, we've come all the way from Hull. That's two hundred and forty miles.' He said, 'Hull? That's two hundred and forty two miles. You still can't leave it there.'


​

Picture
  • 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?