MAGNUS IRVIN
Participant in
4th edittion of Cologne Online Film Festival 2008
Statement
I was born in London in 1952. I went to school then I went to Art College and since then I have made my work in rented studios.
For many years I produced drawings and very large woodcut prints. I now use a wide range of media and my current work is mainly in sculpture, publications and film. In a recent one-man exhibition I showed Iris, Piezo and woodcut prints. Super8 films were projected in a one-person cinema made from cardboard, (complete with balconies and internal lighting), and were complemented by mechanised cardboard sculptures, a performance as a Belisha Beacon and a range of edible chocolate anuses.
For over 25 years I have edited and published an occasional, daft newspaper called The Daily Twit, (If it makes sense we won’t print it). Complimenting this paper is the messy and unmusical band, The Twits, who play once a year and never rehearse.
Occasionally I have no idea what my work is about until it has been hanging around for a while. If I’m lucky it may mature into something useful. I allow random ideas to come together then try and use them in an interesting and often absurd way. I perspire to make work that combines beauty and pointlessness. Drawing and printmaking remain central to my interests although I am currently more involved in live performance and moving images.
I am chairperson of City Studios, a group of 23 artists’ studios in Dalston, East London, where I have one of my two studio spaces.
I consider myself to be a traditional British artist whose work often reflects my interest in institutions such as the seaside, music halls, pub culture, street furniture, sex, ectoplasm and lunatics.
I do silly things seriously.
I like bananas, rubber gloves, fishing, cake, football and Kirk Douglas.