Collecting More Keys
While running last night had a minor epiphany, LOCKSMITHS! surely locksmiths the people who remove locks and keys should have a supply of old ones just hanging around… its a thought…
Bright and early this morning yellow pages in one hand, tea in the other I set to work phoning all my local locksmiths. Explaining what the keys are for was fun "you want them for what love?" " art? old keys?" After some laughter, a bit of consternation, and a flea in my ear about calling emergency locksmiths with what was definitely not an emergency, I happened across a couple of very friendly helpful guys.
Apparently the problem is we're all too green these days… all old keys are recycled, as brass is worth a bit of brass. Steel keys, they are the ones sat on shelves going dusty. One lovely chap is going to collect keys for me and give me a call when he’s got a box full, and the other has 30 for me right away… Its not quite the 200 I need but its another move forward.
Keys, An Exploration Of Loss
I've been working on this piece for the last 6 months, and I seem to be thinking about it constantly.
I love the keys and their secret lost lives, in creating their narratives I feel a connection to the people who once owned them and the lives the keys once held.
After a fun and engaging experimental process its now down to the logistics;
Hanging the work
Collecting more keys
Web presence
Places to exhibit
Hanging the piece
This is the difficult bit, I need to create a ceiling system which is flexible enough to work in different spaces. After a myriad of ideas including individually attaching each key to the gallery ceiling (this would take weeks!) steel tensile wire, spokes… I consulted an engineer/design friend of mine who said “the problem is you want the bloody thing to float!” I have now decided (for the moment) on a polyurethane pegboard which unfortunately seems to be available only in the US… do I get some made? Or shipped over..? hmm..
Collecting More Keys
The joys of freecycle; Freecycle has been so good to me, I’ve advertised a few times now and received a couple of hundred keys, but I need at least that number again, so I’m going to try gum tree and the Creative Industries Network before I advertise nationally. I hoping to discover that people have been hording keys and are desperate to give them away… one can only hope…
Web site I've just applied for funding, fingers crossed…
Exhibition talks are going well, a few galleries are interested I’ve said it will be finished for summer, so here goes…
