Joe kelly's Page

Website

www.kojellyindustries.co.uk

Relationship status

single

College / University

loughborough, england

Program

ba sculpture

Graduation

20 July 1996

Member type

Artist

If you're an artist, what kind of art do you make?

Conceptual, Digital, Drawing, Event, Film, Installation, Painting, Performance, Photography, Sculpture, Video

I am...

Half-man, half-womble......the Fairy Godfather of Junk.......Junkelstiltskin....The Midlander(there can be only one!).....devoid of any self-respect/esteem(as an artist) due to reading to much HST(Hunter S. Thompson)and investigating Bill Woodrow, and realising they were much more original than I many years ago. And they still retained their integrity! I still cling dearly to mine, like a eucalyptussed up koala who wouldn't know a dry humped leg from a 2by4.

I am...
Always challenging myself....
Chewing my nails......
Smoking, drinking, farting....
Chasing the dream that one day I might be able to afford to be an artist...
the bastard love child of dave lee travis and margeret thatcher......
unable to do anything that doesn't involve a hammer.....

About my artwork

Ok. This should be interesting. In the proverbial nutshell...I is into recyclage innit...yer getma? (The Nottm Twang) I have always mooched the social strata for cast-offs. Skip diving, womble-ing about and dragging things back to the studio to render them 'useful' or 'valuable' again....the irony that sometimes these objects sell is secondary to the fact that they haven't gone straight into the landfill. "Scruffy melamine wardrobe-rella, thou shalst go to the ball...!" You know....Things that folks just dont want any more.....because society(advertising) tells us on a daily basis that we need to regularly replace perfectly good, functioning equipment with the latest version.........sod that.....On a side note...I have always been fascinated with the logistics/consequences of war(not that I enjoy the horror of it, but I am a genetic product of it.......WW2 spawned my father, JB...his mum, living in Hucknall during the war, who met and smoozled with a one Jack Harris(G.I.) stationed at RAF Hucknall for shipping out to France. They danced, drank booze, brill creamed their hair even and shazam! My dad came into being,.I still haven't tracked down my Grandad, but it led me to the subject of war with very teary but objective eyes. Hence the inherent conflict/war-ness in my work. I resent the art industry for being so fickle and frivolous when the true test is to limit your materials......go Ray Mears for a bit, it certainly sharpens the senses..............I used to work in 3 distinct ways...I can only see this now with the benefit of hindsight...these were...1) a response to found materials or objects...2) a response to a concept which dictated which sort of junk to look for...3) looking at buildings/architecture and thinking I'd rather live underground which translates as "I need to work bigger!!!!" Essentially, it has always been about doing as much for as little cost as possible. Using the detritus that is deemed unusable, therefore honing my ability to adapt to changing media and convey anti-capitalist/consumerist commentary through gritted teeth and a broad grin. I am passionate about almost everything....except american football

Artists I like

Does this mean as people or their work? There are lots of artists I like but not many who I like their work as well. The uber-like if you like. Claes Oldenburg for his monumentality bred with banality......Bill Woodrow for being......well, just brilliantly incisive and fantastically practical/adaptable......Heath Robinson for his insightful yet playfulness and last but not least, Da Vinci for believing that a wooden helicopter would fly!, bless em all, if these guys didn't push some of those precious boundaries that us lame ass koalas cling to, we would all be living on a microchip..... god knows how many billion there are of us....crammed in ....tooth by jowl...betwixt the soldering

Interests

happiness

Defining the NEW '7 wonders of the world'

recycling junk to have a jibe at eco-lazy britain(the world)

allotmenteering

particle physics (introversion)

cosmology/astrology (extroversion)

the power of art to really, truly inspire(have impact)

Nottingham Forest Football Club.....you reds!

happy accidents( a slip, stumble or stagger which, whilst holding an anglegrinder in full tilt might mean the difference between wrecking something and making it look the dogs!......

anyone i meet who can enthuse me

FOOD! eating, preparing, cooking, chopping, slicing...its the process, the repetition, it shows competence and enhances hand to eye coordination and is useful for life in general

Canoeing, waterpolo(Goalie for Rolls Royce-Hucknall 1993-5), reading, birdwatching, skip-mootching, portrait capturing, buccaneering, getting home from the pub as the crow flies....e.g. hedge-hopping with a garnish of the Inca

star trek

everything i dont already know

What exhibitions are good at the moment?

Have heard of a few, cant remember, I dont get out much, chained to the studio like a numpty, but only because I haven't worked through old ideas yet, need to clear the backlog before venturing out again. might be a while still.....maybe I have an artistic version of agrophobia? i should seek help shouldn't i!

The centre of the artworld is

nowhere and everywhere

My artreview.com URL:
http://www.artreview.com/profile/joekelly
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