Pae White and a very large collage

An inspiring trip to London with one of my friends from Winchester to see Rachel Whiteread at Gagosian, the Drawing Biennial at Drawing Room, and Pae White at South London Gallery. 

The impact of Pae White's work was sensational. Like so many impressive works of art it was a simple idea, perfectly executed. The coloured threads were strung from meticulously-spaced eye-hooks to form three-dimensional expansions from each massive letter of the words TIGER TIME and UNMATTERING.

Looking into the Thames from Hays Galleria, I was struck again by the enigmatic qualities of its colours. My camera tried to capture it but in two successive shots it interpreted the colours very differently. No photoshop. No change of settings but a few seconds apart and a shift in the cloud cover:

Given two weeks to clear my studio space ready for the Degree Show (not mine, that'll be next year) I gathered all my work, prints, drawings, paintings etc and decided which were worth keeping. Some might be saleable. Some I want to keep for my personal collection/archive. All the rest I decided to cut-up and incorporate into a massive collage. I had been donated seven metres of photography background paper, which I fixed round two walls of the installation space.

Inspired by Pae White's use of text, I decided to base my work on large letters spelling out the word DOTTEREL. I scaled-up from a Word document in Ariel Black, using a ruler and calculator and transferred the letters to the paper with pencil and ruler. The curves were achieved free-hand.

I cut and stuck my work in a large free-hand oval to create a disk of multiple blues.

The contrasting tops of the letters were formed from other pieces of my work, together with significant documents from the year; posters and magazine articles.

I will use many of my life drawings for a second 'disk' of collage on the other wall - and as many vivid colours as I can pack in, juxtaposed using my limited grasp of colour-theory, to create the most vibrant impact. Because the whole work refers to work and events of the last year, I will also incorporate Ruud Gullit sitting on a shed (a family in-joke from the Father Ted Christmas special):

I have one day to finish the work (on 13th May, my sister's birthday) after which it must be taken down as somebody else has booked the space. I plan to cut the work into four panels and erect it, in a reconfigured form, in the corridor outside my studio. Watch this space.