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Every Home Should Have One
2010
Bread board, galvanised gate fittings, ceramic egg cup and paint encrusted screwdriver.
Approximate dimensions: 45cms x 30cms x 15cms
Whilst he was working on a former home, I noticed that the painter and decorator was stirring his paint with a strange, heavy looking white coloured object which he explained was comprised of multiple layers of house paint. The man further explained that the device had started out as a simple screwdriver, and that he had used it to stir his paint pots for many years, before commencing work.
This object took on an immediate fascination for me, as it comprised a physical record in multiple incremental accretions of paint of the man’s work activity over a long period of time, but this could only be revealed by cutting through the object and thus destroying it, in order to reveal the numerous layers of paint hidden within - somewhat akin to the annular rings of a tree.
In a real sense it was a positive physical record of chronological human activity, in a similar, but opposite way to how a stone step becomes gradually, incrementally worn away as a result of human activity over an exceedingly long time.
The object merely looks like a nebulous blob of hard matter until its original purpose and history are explained, but the evidence of its true use over time remains hidden within.
I assumed that the object held at least some personal resonance for him, but on enquiring he said that if I wished to have it, I could, and that he would replace it with a new screwdriver. In effect it was merely a tool that he had used out of habit for a lengthy period of time, that he had no particular attachment to it, and it didn’t seem to matter to him that the device had become increasingly heavier and more unwieldly to use over time.
So, I juxtaposed this with other incongruous objects to create an assemblage that, at first sight at least, appears to possibly have a practical purpose, but on closer examination manifestly does not.
It therefore self-categorizes as a sculpture of sorts.
The title of course, is ironic, but derives from the 1970 film in which Marty Feldman devises an advertising campaign for frozen porridge.
George Taylor
December 2022
This piece is for sale at the studio price of £425.00
Further images of this piece can be seen on Gallery 9 of my website.
