CHRIS DOBROWOLSKI
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      • Project Outline
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    • Covid lockdown with Boris >
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      • 'EK52 UDP'
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      • Red Sports Car, East To West
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    • Badgast Residency >
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      • Hessle Road (continued)
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        • Winners and Losers
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      • & Model
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​Mareado (continued)

'Cold War Monument'
Picture
There's a light bulb inside the empty TV screen that also switches on when the fridge door is opened to aluminate the blizzard.
​The artwork in action playing a track from the LP called 'The Machine Gun Cart').Film: Ron Suffield (2 min. 40 secs.)
One of the artworks installed in the 'Kringloopwinkel' was this fridge freezer and television. For more information and images follow this link to 'Cold War Monument.'

This piece was installed next to another fridge and another television that were for sale. The television in the artwork is hollowed out and polystyrene snow is blown into it from a vacuum cleaner in the fridge. It was a bit like a souvenir snow globe but it played music from a record player turntable in the freezer. The music is an LP of the 'Red Army Choir'. 
Picture
In situ
Picture
Either 'Kringloopwinkel' customers or peaple on an official 'Mareado' art tour stumble accross the artwork.
​When I was doing some maintenance on this piece a customer started to ask me lots of questions about it and told me how impressed he was with it. Then he said.... 
​ 
​“...but I was looking for a television that worked normally and didn’t do this......do you have one like that?”

​Instead of explaining that I wasn’t actually an employee of the 'Kringloopwinkel' I sold him the red television on the left hand side of the photograph.

'Vacuum Cleaner Circle'
Picture
The 'Vacuum cleaner circle' with a record player added. Press play to hear the music that went along with this piece.
I added a record player to an old piece of work made from vacuum cleaners which played 'Ronnie Hilton' singing 'Around the world in 80 days''. It can be seen in this image on the table in the centre. To hear it over the noise of the vacuum cleaners it had to be played very loud. Despite the noise, the rhythm of the bin bags wafting from side to side as they turned on and off seemed to match the tempo of the music perfectly (See this link-Vacuum Cleaner Circle- for an explanation of how this piece worked).

`Vacuum Cleaner Circle' was installed in the carpet section of the shop and each vacuum cleaner is placed on its own separate mat. The work took a great deal of time to install as each vacuum cleaner had to be lined up with the next exactly for it to function. This delicate operation was foiled more than once as customers insisted on buying the mats that the cleaners were stood on.
The film shows  an earlier version  of  'Vacuum cleaner circle' without the music. Collating documentation of these works 20 years later it's frustrating not having a film of the 'Vacuum cleaner circle' working in the 'Kringloopwinkel'. It just wasn't as easy in those days. Something that I could film on my phone in ten minutes today would take a lot of time and resources back then that I just didn't have.     

Film: Dave Page (2mins. 10secs)

'Sketch for Aeroplane No. 3'
Picture
'Sketch for aeroplane No.3' placed on a dining room table in the furniture department. Photo: Eric Van Straaten
  'Sketch for Aeroplane No.3' (2mins. 56 secs)
​filmed in '& Model gallery' some years later.
Many of the artworks on show were quite fragile. The fact that they were all still working at the end of the exhibition was a testament to how considerate the public was and how well they were looked after by the staff at the 'Kringloopwinkel'. I have actually shown work in art galleries that have been shown far less respect. A typical fragile piece was 'Sketch for Aeroplane No.3' which used an Airfix model that flew from the air of a vacuum cleaner. For more information on this work click this link.

'The Plinth'
Picture
Photo: Doug Atfield
Film: Ron Suffield (3 mins. 2 secs.)
Picture
Spin dryers in the 'Kringloopwinkel'
Although there are no installation shots of this piece in the 'Kringloopwinkel',  'The Plinth' was made specifically for 'Reisbureau Mareado'. The shop had a collection of about five other spin dryers for sale all in a row. 'The Plinth' was put in front of this row. Whenever people walked past it a vacuum cleaner motor came on and blew open the lid. The record player in the bottom, again had to be quite loud to be heard over the noise of the motor. The singer is David Whitfield, an ex-sailor and native of Hull. For more information and long story on this piece click this link. 

It was eventually switched off because it kept frightening customers.

'Europa- Hoek Van Holland to Vladivostok'
Picture
Photo: Eric Van Straaten
Film: Ron Suffield (3 mins. 31secs.)
'Europa- Hoek Van Holland to Vladivostok' is made from two wooden boxes, comes apart and packs neatly into one box. It is ideal for travel. In the 'kringloopwinkel' there were several large trolleys used for moving furniture and heavy boxes around. I borrowed one for the duration of the show and placed the artwork on top of it. In a sense it was therefore in a permanent state of transience.

The music playing is the 'The Happy Wanderer' sung in German by the 'Obernkirchen' Children's Choir.
For more information about this piece click this link
Picture
​I was in two minds weather to include this piece of work in 'Reisburo Mareado'. The original motivation with this piece was my ongoing interest in transport and landscape (It's a landscape painting in a small box travelling through a larger box). The act of creating it however made me reflect on my father’s experience of being deported in a cattle wagon during the war by Stalin’s NKVD. The 'German' recording was a deliberate decision to depersonalise the work and 'not' make it auto biographical. Despite being from 1954, its intersting how the music to some can have Nazi connotations. At the time I was interested in how these sinsiter associations could be conjured up using nothing but innocent toys and childrens voices. Whether it was right to refer to such a sensitive subject in the context of a shop that sold peoples old possessions was questionable. I personally think the ‘Kringloopwinkel', is a symbol of our post war, dystopian consumer culture. However, I thought it might be an irreverent place for a debate on the use of holocasust iconography in art. It was interesting therfore when the manager of the ‘Kringloopwinkel’ relayed an incident to me that had occurred while the exhibition was on.
An elderly man visiting the shop had been taken aback by the work 'Europa- Hoek Van Holland to Vladivostok' as he had been an inmate in the camps as a child. He was even forced to sing “The Happy Wanderer” whilst he was there. He asked to see the manager to express his concerns and it was she who defended the work and the decision to display it in the shop. After acknowledging the war time references in the artwork she went onto say that it was important to publicise and remind people of this horrific history in order to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. The man left satisfied. 'Europa- Hoek Van Holland to Vladivostok' has been shown in four 'proper' art galleries but it never instigated such serious debate as this before.
  • 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?