John Whitney-Matrix III (1972)

'1Love Art' Store Launch - Stokes Croft, Bristol 18.11.2010

We were in Bristol recently for the launch of the '1Love' Art Store. 1Love having recently taken ourselves onboard, kindly offered the opportunity to create some artwork with markers on the store walls for the opening. We arrived late afternoon (17th, the day before the launch), and after meeting the Lovely Beth and Vince, (the marvelously hardworking couple behind 1Love) being conscious of the time (working in markers, isn't the speediest of mediums to work in, even with my wife Nicolette helping with fills), I was itching to get started. I wasn't sure where I would be working and hadn't come down with something specific in mind or a 'set piece' I intended to re-create on the walls. I wanted to see what the 'space' had to say for itself, and then I would set to work creating a sort of response. I like to work this way as new unimagined, creative avenue's can be explored where the space itself has a relationship or 'influence' if you will, on the nature and feel of the pieces that later adorne it. So I was stoked when I was offered the entrance and immediate corridor to work in. My mind went crazy with ideas :) Corridors and entrances are simply means of efficiently travelling between destinations, usually other rooms and spaces. My intention was to present, and if only for a second, interupt the viewer enroute, with walls of strange ambiguous, narrative and symbols, begging inevitable questions of meaning and interpretation in the viewer .

The launch went like a dream, with many in attendance. We managed to get finished only an hour before the 8pm opening, where we quickly retreated to the hotel to briefly chill and refresh, before returning for the party ! a few drinks, music and great conversation :)

Special thanks to Beth and Vince for looking after us when we were down, (Nice Pizza guys! yum!) and allowing us to draw on their 'Lovely' walls ; )