After School Klub coat-of-arms

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Apr 222016

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Concept
Work in progress
360° panorama
Where is the show?

Soker asked me into (probably) Bristol’s very own super crew, A.S.K. or After School Klub. Ben at Hang Fire was very interested to schedule a 21-strong group exhibition, with the crew’s blessing.

Concept

I had a table-top that had been around in the family for several years, the wear and tear of many cuts. The kind of table that was initially scared of a few modern marks, but over time it took on the usual beautiful patina of a crafty battleground. This was to be the stage for an ambitious creation of a coat-of-arms for the crew.

It is typical for heraldry to incorporate a Latin motto, so I wrote ours as ‘Potest Facere Melius’, which – without actually approaching a scholar and according to Google Translate – means ‘Can Do Better’. My limited knowledge of the language, garnered at secondary school, suspected it was accurate enough for an appropriate slogan for a band of dysfunctional pirates. It was a minor improvement on “Ventosa Veri Restabit” which I wrote on the Canalside Mural with Concrete Creations way back in Birmingham (it was engraved on a brass plaque which was later stolen from the site).

The crest was initially guarded by a rat and a pigeon but I felt it distracted from the centrepiece which featured four divisions depicting some of the common attributes shared by my fellow Klub members:

Toilets
Alcohol
Pharmaceuticals
Chatting sh*t

I also planned for the crest to get a crown topping the lot (obvs).

There were a few of my concepts used for the opening night such as a tuck shop and school disco, the piece just had to be made during a self-inflicted detention too, just to go with the school vibes…

Work in progress

I scribbled/scratched the artwork onto the table freehand, under a daylight bulb during the night hours. To give the biro ink some purchase I had to etch away at least the first, polished coating. The varnish, once I began etching it away, soon became coffee, then tea and finally a vanilla. To make the lighter tones required engraving through the first wood layer completely – all done with a small, rotary sanding disc. The removal of all this coating created a new kind of dust – for me at least. Not nice at all, sort of gluey… I had to dust away any of the resulting powders as I went. It wasn’t good to have this concoction inside any of the ‘trenches’ I worked into with the biro, the pen would accumulate a dust/wood/ink soup.

360° panorama

You can drag the view around by clicking and dragging the left mouse button, the gyroscope allows you to tilt the view around you on a mobile such as iPhone.

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