Iain Machell
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IMAGE 1 & 2 - Growing Pains, 1 - ‘Growing Pains (Warrior, horses, camels)’2002, 19 x 26 in , Oil crayon, graphite on rice paper , 2 - ‘Growing Pains (Dad, Camel, Symbol Stone)’, 2001, 11 x 8.5 in, Graphite on rice paper. ‘) - Growing Pains is an ongoing series of drawings constructing a personal narrative that connects the present with an ancient past, with my childhood hovering somewhere in the middle. Drawings and photographs that I made as a boy are recombined in an empty white drawing space with images of significant monuments from the landscape of my British upbringing. A struggle with a chosen life of exile becomes a metaphorical struggle of images that yank at my roots. - IMAGE 3 - ‘Area Predictor‘, 2003, 8.5x 11 in, Graphite, text from aerial
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bombing charts. 2002-ongoing, ’ Buffer Zone’ is a working title for an ongoing series of drawings that collect information from nature and warfare. Graphite rubbings or transfers from a 19th. Century collection of pressed plant specimens are smashed together on a blank paper surface with diagrams & text from warfare & security signage. Many of these ideas are now being transferred to
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stone surfaces for outdoor sculpture ideas. - IMAGE 4 - 16 Days No.1, 1999, Audio Tape, cassettes, text, chair, Dimensions variable, Installations for Brickhaus Art, Brooklyn, NY, The documentary evidence of a 16-day psychological journey, stored on audio and video tape, acts as a filament that is woven and stretched around a chair, which functions as a surrogate for the human body. In No.1 audio tape creates an inaccesible narrative and a net that simultaneously traps and saves the chair. In No.2 video tape is woven into a traditional chair seat, an object of comfort made of uncomfortable material. - IMAGE 5 - ‘RELAX!’, 1999, Video tape rope, chair, cassettes, text, audio tape loop, Dimensions variable. 1999 "RELAX !" Mixed-media installation at Mobius, Boston, MA . RELAX! incorporates 46 hours of video tape, twisted into rope and woven into a 40 x 30 in net, and a chair to create a sculptural environment that raises questions about personal history and psychological stability. Video cassettes have labeled titles that construct a daily narrative of a psychological journey. The video rope is woven into the seat of the rocking chair, suspended over the giant net. On the floor a tape loop plays ‘The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze’ on a
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circus organ. - IMAGE 6 - ‘Sweet Dreams‘, 2000, Bed, Self-Help audio tapes, Dimensions variable. A web of knotted audio tape is spread over a dysfunctional bed frame in an empty room, formerly a bedroom in the John Slade Ely House in New Haven, CT. Is the woven tape a bedspread, a warm, protective quilt, or a net trapping the bed’s occupant in a psychological web?
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The corners of the net/ quilt lead you to the tape’s source: 4 ‘self-help’ audio cassettes labeled 8 Days To Great Sex!/ Coping With Stress: Night/ Laugh At Your $ Troubles!/ Improve Yourself While You Sleep! SWEET DREAMS is part of an ongoing series of site-specific installations investigating themes of domestic anxiety.
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