Photo: Clemency Pearce
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What did Colchester Arts Centre ask you to make? The initial brief was to make a standard lamp, an artwork that could double-up with some kind of functional use. I’ve always been interested in the area where ‘art’ meets ‘functional’ and how and where artistic integrity lies within this dichotomy. The brief was later broadened when Anthony Roberts, the arts centre director and commissioner said :- “We really just want a genuine Chris Dobrowolski”! "I thought it would be a cool idea to have some art work commissioned so it was more than just an office it had more of what actually makes 'us' us!" (anon.) Why did you use a traffic light? I work a lot with toy cars and started looking at objects of this ilk that represented light. This made me think of the ‘Dinky toy’ street furniture you used to be able to buy. I initially bought a toy belisha beacon for a zebra crossing on E-bay. I liked the way it represented a bright orange flashing light but in reality, by contrast, was just a dumb, solid metal casting. I then started looking for something that had a more ‘box like’ shape that would be more suitable to being a diorama. Making landscape paintings inside boxes is something I’ve done a lot of in the past. What was unique in this instance however was that I took a toy traffic light and scaled it up to life size. The top section is on its side to make it landscape. The original toy traffic light then also features inside as part of the composition. |
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I couldn't actually find a photograph of a real traffic light that the Dinky toy was based on. The ball shaped finial on the top, by proportion is very big and distinctive. I'm starting to think that it might have been a vague interpretation by whoever made the toy. Maybe the real thing never actually existed.
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Film 1 min. 32 secs.
Me driving the Colchester Arts centre bus back from the Edinburgh festival in 2006
'Dinky Toys' Routemaster bus. When I used to drive the 'real' arts centre bus part of my job would be to change the promotional advertising hoardings on the side depending on the event I was delivering it to. I would have to get up a ladder and change the meaning of the bus on regular basis.
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What’s the significance of the red bus? Colchester Arts centre is an organisation I know pretty well. I’ve worked with them in the past performing at the venue but I’ve also been employed ‘by’ them to do less glamorous things including driving an old Routemaster bus. The real bus was used as a venue by the arts centre at the Edinburgh fringe festival one year and I was one of the acts on board. It was my first time at the festival and like a lot of hopefuls I thought it might lead to more work. My first job came sooner than I thought but wasn’t what I was expecting. I was asked if I would like to help get the bus back to Essex from Scotland by sharing some of the driving. Having never driven a bus before, I was like a child given the opportunity to ‘play’ with the real thing. I subsequently ended up driving the bus a lot, becoming the regular driver. It was one of those sideline jobs that artists often have to do to subsidise their income. Sometimes I would have to deliver it to art events for other artists. I would mention that I too was an artist but of course, no one was interested. In that context it was difficult to convince people I was a bona fide artist. Climbing out of the cab of a big red bus I was quite clearly ‘a bus driver’ ... I remember it being a bit of a knock to my ego. A preoccupation I have with a lot of my recent work is ‘perceptions of reality’. For me the bus was a very ‘real’ or authentic connection I had with Colchester Arts Centre. It also represents the reality of being an artist. That’s why it became a sort of ‘conceptual in’ for this commission. |
'The Son of Man' by René Magritte
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Airfix 1:72 scale figure of a pedestrian wearing a bowler hat.
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What’s the significance of Rene Magritte?
So I have this preoccupation with ‘perceptions of reality’. I think Magritte’s work is the most well known or simplistic example of art that questions its own reality. Many people know his work and can relate to it. You could argue that it’s almost populist. The artwork I have made is for a public space, not everyone that sees it will be ‘arty’. I reference Magritte’s painting ‘The Treachery of Images’ because I think it illustrates this ‘realty issue’ succinctly. Hopefully this in turn will give people a way in to understanding my work.
Unlike Magritte, my preoccupation has also fueled my fascination with the current rise of right wing populist politics. Like a lot of my work this piece tries to combine the two realms of ‘artificiality’ and the ‘real world’. In this present day point in history however the ‘real world’, shaped by Donald Trump, has an extra added layer of post truth artificiality to it that I have added to the mix.
So I have this preoccupation with ‘perceptions of reality’. I think Magritte’s work is the most well known or simplistic example of art that questions its own reality. Many people know his work and can relate to it. You could argue that it’s almost populist. The artwork I have made is for a public space, not everyone that sees it will be ‘arty’. I reference Magritte’s painting ‘The Treachery of Images’ because I think it illustrates this ‘realty issue’ succinctly. Hopefully this in turn will give people a way in to understanding my work.
Unlike Magritte, my preoccupation has also fueled my fascination with the current rise of right wing populist politics. Like a lot of my work this piece tries to combine the two realms of ‘artificiality’ and the ‘real world’. In this present day point in history however the ‘real world’, shaped by Donald Trump, has an extra added layer of post truth artificiality to it that I have added to the mix.
An adapted 'Corgi Toys', Chieftan tank with a mechanism to fire a real bullet. The writing on the side is the Russian for 'taxi' thinly disguising the realty of what it is.
Donald Trump steps from 'Marine 1' (the presidential helicopter). No Magritte bowler hat but he does have the red tie.
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Pretend Trump flying above us convincing the world of his version of reality in a 'Dinky Toy Sea king helicopter'.
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Why is Michelangelo’s Hand of God pointing at Trumps helicopter?
It’s a continuation of one of the themes of the piece- The amplification of Trumps delusions of grandeur. Think, Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi propaganda film ‘Triumph of the will’. Whereas in Riefenstahl’s film Hitler arrives by aeroplane symbolically descending from the heavens, here, god has a more ‘hands on’ roll.
Hidden behind the hand the toy helicopter actually has a rod inserted into the tail that’s bolted through the roof of the box. The hand doesn’t actually grasp the helicopter, as you say it’s ‘pointing’ at it. It still manages to stay up though; don’t ask me how- god is magic I guess!
'Me' flying
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Isn’t your background in sculpture not painting? Yes, I studied sculpture from the late 80’s to the mid nineties. In an art college sculpture department of that time it was drummed into us that unlike painting we were making ‘real things’ not illusions. How the work occupied the space was an important part of the process. To bring their small artworks off the floor and up to eye level students would sometimes hang them from the ceiling by fishing wire. This practice was habitually mocked. There was an implication that it was lazy or cheating. The semi transparent fishing line implied that it wasn’t meant to be seen when in reality it was clearly visible. |
One jibe that stuck in my mind that was used by a lecturer was to walk into the space and pretend to be dumbfounded by the levitating art. He would then turn to the student and say:“How did you achieve this miracle? Is it the hand of god?”
The artist, Cornelia Parker was a contemporary of that era. She not only did the very thing we were taught not to do, she ended up building a very successful career out of it. I, on the other hand, spent years building an art aeroplane and eventually managed to fly it a few metres off the ground. By contrast to Cornelia Parker - No one’s ever heard of me - I guess that’s one of the many reasons why the Trump voice in this artwork calls me a loser. It does amuse me though that the helicopter is literally held up by the hand of god.
The artist, Cornelia Parker was a contemporary of that era. She not only did the very thing we were taught not to do, she ended up building a very successful career out of it. I, on the other hand, spent years building an art aeroplane and eventually managed to fly it a few metres off the ground. By contrast to Cornelia Parker - No one’s ever heard of me - I guess that’s one of the many reasons why the Trump voice in this artwork calls me a loser. It does amuse me though that the helicopter is literally held up by the hand of god.
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1. Jim Morrison and the rest of 'The Doors' sit astride a giant poster of themselves on Sunset strip Los Angeles.
2. The bill board is made from an iphone. The unglamorous 3 wheeler maintenance truck is a 'Corgi Junior' version of a 'Reliant Tw9 Ant'. A toy I have owned since I was about 5 years old. 3. Sam Waterston and Lois Chiles in a scene from the 1974 movie 'The Great Gatsby'. Behind their car can be seen the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, a redundant billboard advert for an eye doctor. Unlike the eyes of 'Big brother' in Orwell's '1984' Fitzgerald's eyes in 'Gatsby' are said to represent a defunct god watching passively over a moral decline. Trump here takes a more active role. |
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What are your thoughts on Donald Trump supporters and can you relate to them in anyway?
I was an avid ‘Doors’ fan when I was a teenager. I loved the classical references in Jim Morrisson’s lyrics and felt they added an intellectual depth. Some might argue though that these references, out of context in a song, were merely seductive and really just ‘pseudo’ intellectualism. Whatever, it certainly worked on me. As a young self absorbed bohemian at art college I was probably the target audience. Morrison’s untimely death at 27 was a marketing dream that cemented his mythological godlike status.
The Doors were the soundtrack to my life. Mesmerised by this nihilistic music it somehow also became an underlying; justification for being a bit of a pretentious selfish arsehole. Maybe, unknowingly, I was ‘proto MAGA’.
(The 'Make America Great Again' movement is known for its fanatical support for Donald Trump )
I was an avid ‘Doors’ fan when I was a teenager. I loved the classical references in Jim Morrisson’s lyrics and felt they added an intellectual depth. Some might argue though that these references, out of context in a song, were merely seductive and really just ‘pseudo’ intellectualism. Whatever, it certainly worked on me. As a young self absorbed bohemian at art college I was probably the target audience. Morrison’s untimely death at 27 was a marketing dream that cemented his mythological godlike status.
The Doors were the soundtrack to my life. Mesmerised by this nihilistic music it somehow also became an underlying; justification for being a bit of a pretentious selfish arsehole. Maybe, unknowingly, I was ‘proto MAGA’.
(The 'Make America Great Again' movement is known for its fanatical support for Donald Trump )
'This is NOT Donald Trump' in situ at Colchester arts centre box office behind Micks desk. A much respected arts centre fixture, if Mick isn't too busy and you ask him nicely he may demonstrate the artwork for you. Photo: Emma Wallis
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Photo: Clemency Pearce
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Sound Files
The Trump Ai voice was made using a basic free online app. There are 9 sound files in total; two buttons on the side of the box allow the viewer to scroll through them. Trump 'quotes', 'misquotes' and 'misinterprets' a random selection of artist's, philosophers and famous people on the subject of life and perceptions of realty. A flawed series of statements that use a frustrating 'homespun logic' to intellectualise lying.
The Trump Ai voice was made using a basic free online app. There are 9 sound files in total; two buttons on the side of the box allow the viewer to scroll through them. Trump 'quotes', 'misquotes' and 'misinterprets' a random selection of artist's, philosophers and famous people on the subject of life and perceptions of realty. A flawed series of statements that use a frustrating 'homespun logic' to intellectualise lying.
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