CHRIS DOBROWOLSKI
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        • Sketches for Tank
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    • ...on the wall...in boxes >
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      • Thatcher
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      • Tank Caravans Paint Brush
      • Buy to Let
      • Section 21
  • On The Stage
    • All Roads Lead To Rome >
      • Project outline
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    • Antarctica >
      • Project Outline
      • Reviews
    • Poland 3 Iran 2 >
      • Project Outline
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      • Project Outline
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    • Auspicious Phoenix Recycling Palace
    • Covid lockdown with Boris >
      • Boris zip wire
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      • what is the truth but a lie agreed upon
    • Goat Train
    • washed up Car - go >
      • Project Outline
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      • 'EK52 UDP'
      • 'VK02 GFK'
      • 'Y194 LPP'
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      • Washed Up Car- go (Brighton)
    • Vanishing Point >
      • Project Outline
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      • Red Sports Car, East To West
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      • 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
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    • Coventry Transport Museum Residency >
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      • Hessle Road (continued)
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      • Mareado (Continued)
      • City magazine review
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      • Aerial, wind, sun and radio
      • Guitar Played by the Wind >
        • Winners and Losers
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      • Aerial, wind, sun and radio
    • Group Projects >
      • oceans
      • Talk to me
      • & Model
      • Middlesbrough Art Weekender
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      • Millennium Encyclopedia
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Selfie Slot Car Racing at Firstsite gallery 

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'NOT' official 'Firstsite' marketing material but my satirical take on community engagement. I was planning to tap into Colchester's Roman connection and the fact that the race track was built around and through the galleries auditorium. This was going to be one of many miniature advertising hoardings all the way round the track to hopefully be picked up by the 'Caravan Cam' and projected bigger on the screen.
(4 mins. 8 secs.) Commentators comedian 'James Serak' and  artist 'Tom Armstrong'. The final race of the day at Firstsite gallery in the auditorium. The track went in one door and out the other going all the way round the outside.  The feed from the  'Caravan Cams' was projected onto the big screen in the audatorium- Although 'Caravan Cam 3' didn't work due to an undiagnosed electrical interference problem.
​It was interesting to do 'Selfie Slot Car Racing' in another context other than a library. The original concept came from making some kind of marketing parody and I wanted that to be at the core of the project for Firstsite. My aims at the gallery were interesting but slightly over ambitious given the resources available to me. At the time (2016) Firstsite still had an image issue. The gallery was a multi million pound new build project that had a lot of unforeseen problems and bad luck since it opened a few years earlier. Consequently it had had to deal with a lot of criticism and bad press. Public image was a thorny issue and I wasn't actually allowed to mention my marketing strategy- which made it feel even more clandestine.
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The model press hut from my old Scalexrix set.
(18 secs.) Trying out the new starting system
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One story I heard was that taxi drivers were perpetuating a negative image of the gallery by giving spontaneous damming reviews of the place to their passengers. I don't know how true this was but I thought it was an interesting idea. In other 'Selfie Slot car' races I had tried to make at least one 'taxi slot car' so that we had an anonymous car to offer people who didn't drive. In Colchester I took this a lot further by making as many as possible with a view to getting them involved in the project- A sort of labour intensive 'targeted marketing' campaign. It was never actaully going to work but I thought it was an interesting concept.  
There were a whole raft of technical issues at the gallery including electrical interference that stopped one of the 'caravan cams' working altogether. Consequently a lot of the interesting additions to the project were never developed far enough but I did get one taxi driver to turn up on race day to race a model of his own taxi. 
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A local family run business lent their classic van to be turned into a slot car.
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The track exiting the auditorium (right) and making its way around the outside along the corridor. The Firstsite gallery track was the largest one I built and took at least a minute and half to get all the way round. Photo: Eddie Bacon
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The track entering through the door in the distance and making its way across the front of the auditorium. The building is famously 'curved' and I discovered that by follwing the walls with the track it didn't join up square at the end. You can see in the image that luckliy it was so long I was able to put a curve in it so that the two ends of the track met. Photo: Eddie Bacon
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The track coming down the other corridor on the opposite side of the audatorium and entering the space via the door on the left in the photograph. Photo: Eddie Bacon
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The four projected views from the 'caravan cams' made it a bit more interesting for spectators. Photo: Eddie Bacon
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There was a steady stream of spectators that came in and out over the course of the day. The comperes were highly entertaining. Photo: Eddie Bacon
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Negotiating one of the 'S' bends. Photo: Eddie Bacon
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Photo: Eddie Bacon
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Two wheelchair friendly bridges had to be built as the track crossed a busy thoroughfare in the gallery. Photo: Eddie Bacon
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Changing the batteries in the 'caravan cams' before the start of the next race. Photo: Eddie Bacon
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Car and 'caravan cam' passing under one of the bridges. Photo: Eddie Bacon
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James Serak and Tom Armstrong in mid race commentary. Photo: Eddie Bacon
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As well as 'cut out' track marshals warning of an upcoming corner; the 'Firstsite gallery championship' also offered the opportunity to run people over. The figure at the back left wearing the black roll neck sweater is actually the Firstsite buildings architect, 'Rafael Vinoly'- A contraversatial figure in Colchester.
  • 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?