Alex Chinneck
Alex Chinneck graduated from Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2007 and currently lives and works in London.
From the knees of my nose to the belly of my toes
My practice takes industrious and technically complex routes to arrive at playful moments. ‘From the knees of my nose to the belly of my toes’ fuses traditional craft with modern engineering in its pursuit to create a mesmerising visual pleasure. Inspired by skeletons and traditional barbershop signs, the maple helix alternates its rotational direction to appear to drift upward or downward into the white steel structure that supports it. By constructing the illusion that the form appears to continue moving beyond the realms of what can be seen, I hope to challenge the reality that nothing lasts forever by temporarily making you believe that it can. Through the motion and manipulation of the wood I have tried to create an illusory fluidity that teases logic and watching eyes. The Inflexible maple transcends its material nature and distorts our perception of the physical world. I create visual illusions because they embody an artwork’s capacity to be mesmerizing and a design’s desire to challenge physical laws. When the realms of possibility are seemingly stretched everything else becomes a little more possible and under this ideal the work attempts to charge it’s spectator with an optimistic energy.
UKYA PROJECTS:
National Biennale: Derby 2010
