Originating from a childhood obsession that centred on the industrial revolution, my work focuses on the development of the modern city, and on the consumer goods on which many of us rely. The work evolves from the point of tension between invention and choice, where human needs are no longer fulfilled by imagining a solution and then creating it, but are met instead by selecting from a range of readymade alternatives.

After studying my BA in painting at Wimbledon School of Art, I furthered my interest in mechanical production by completing an MA in Printmaking at the Royal College of Art. The work I was producing there, photographs of rafts of household goods floating in the sea, led me to consider contemporary lives where choice is not available and invention is a must. Two of these – that of the sailor and of the island inhabitant, were worthy of an investigation that, in 2007, led me to travel 4,000 miles by sea from England to the Island of St Helena in the South Atlantic.

The Island’s rich history and unique social mix provided a wealth of inspiration that led to a solo exhibition at the Museum of St Helena entitled The Abundance. Amongst this work was a 14ft length of rope (To Finish What Was Started, 2007) made using redundant flax fibre left from the Island’s seventy-year stint of production that collapsed in 1962. I also produced a cardboard replica of a heavy steel ladder (Myth Today, 2007) used to negotiate a steep cliff face called ‘Hold Fast Tom’. It was here that the English are said to have invaded; the name refers to a mythical cry given to the brave Marine who scaled the rock face. The shaky ladder, probably salvaged from one of the coastal wrecks, aids inhabitants as they climb 500ft to the bay below.

Myth Today, and To Finish What Was Started both touch on the sense of invention that pervades this isolated life, where something has to be made from nothing and everything has the potential to be transformed with imagination and elbow grease. My methods of production, which continued the legacy of using local materials (such as waste cardboard from the local shop), brought contemporary ideas of invention and mythology to the fore. These subtle material shifts allowed thought to move from the identifiable objects, acting as theatrical props, to the shifting identities and histories of the people, and place, that acts upon them.

-Andrew Parker, May 2008

 

For more information on Andy's work, please see: http://andyp.co.uk/