Chimps in Space?

Sometimes Paul uses the monkey as a kind of ‘innocent’, an early human who reflects back the absurdity of our ‘progress’. His monkey in the exhibition “Conflict” (Room Upstairs, Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich, 2004) was given his own little TV room, some booze and nuts and left to watch a constant stream of bizarre TV clips set to music. The images start with a monkey strapped into a space capsule shaking his head in disbelief. There follows a collection of culture and politics from around the world leaving you wondering at the sheer oddness of it all. Who is the “Performing Monkey” us or him?
His brother Mark was the source of all the clips and for someone who doesn’t seem to watch that much TV he has gathered an extraordinary library of strangeness - these were just the tip of the iceberg...

The Magic Continues! (More Monkeys)

The larger monkeys are definitely more popular with men. These three created a stir when they went up to be galvanised in Lowestoft. The guys at BMT (British Metal Treatments)were falling over themselves to be the one to dip them and get a photo. We had a lot of offers to house them that day. Mind you those guys normally dip lengths of motorway central reservation so I suppose the monkeys couldn’t fail. (Click an image to start slide show)



These soldier monkeys were made around the time of the Iraq conflict when our intervention was being questioned. The idea is based on the three monkeys of speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil, a sort of re-invention for our more muddled times. They wear a mixture of battle dress from khaki combats to colonial pith helmet - our primitive ancestors taking a primitive stand.

Monkey Magic!

Paul has had a monkey thing going for a while. Monkey sculptures seem to be a bit like marmite - people either love ‘em or hate ‘em. Interestingly, its been mostly women who have commissioned and bought small scale monkeys like these ones. Maybe they bring out a mothering instinct. Some men (particularly my brother in law) are positively scared of them!
(Click an image to start slide show)



Our son, who was only about 4 when Paul made the first one, used to have a big rapport with the monkey. He would hang out with it in the living room (before it went off to an exhibition) and he chatted away to it when he thought no one was listening. He still loves monkeys.