Arena

Arena

1976 – 1984
6 x 4.25 x 1.85 m

A freestanding construction / sculpture with its own light and sound systems

  • twenty two hooded rats
  • one skeleton rat
  • one mummified rat
  • eleven red and one clear PAR 38 spotlights on time chase
  • twelve pieces of black felt
  • twelve sheets of silver mirror
  • twelve black painted mild steel frames with chrome studs
  • two tape decks and two amps
  • four loudspeakers
  • two tape loops of vari-speeded sound with wind, rain, drum, voices and whispers….*
  • atmosphere in immediate area of construction invested with pungent odour

* duration six minutes. “I consider the sound in the work to be the primary element; it is utilized to suggest a particular mood and lend a kind of volumetric architecture to the visual aspects of the construction.”

Exhibition provenance

Lewis Johnstone Gallery, London , 1982 (two studies exhibited)
Chelsea School of Art, London, 1982 (first state of this work – incomplete)
Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, 1984
Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, 1985