2002–ongoing

Steel and perspex signage for the premises of Radical Loyalty, 2003
130 × 100 × 1 cm, 10 cm off the wall.

A piece of land is bought in the town of Järvankandi, Estonia. Five executives – from each of the primary business sectors of finance, retail, energy, telecommunications and marketing – are consulted on their personal view of how ‘loyalty’ might be expressed in a radical manner, sculpturally. These notions are translated into a design, to be executed by former craftsmen of Soviet statuary, and assembled to form a sculpture park, serving the town of Järvakandi.

Works:

Steel and perspex signage for the premises of Radical Loyalty
2003
130 × 100 × 1 cm, 10 cm off the wall.

Artist’s impression of the sculpture park painted by Chris Evans and Padraig Timoney
2003
Oil on canvas
120 × 180 cm.

Series of five artist’s impressions
2003
Polymer gravure prints on Somerset Satin 300gsm, 90 × 64 cm (edition 20):

1. Adapt and Survive
Sculpture proposed by Kari Vaiha, Manager of Environment Sonera-Telia Telecom, Finland who is concerned with ‘social sustainability’, and his core motivation is changing human habits to prevent climate change. In choosing the rat and cockroach for his sculpture he was selecting two species that would survive a nuclear holocaust, thus symbolising survival.

2. Effectual versus Ineffectual
Sculpture proposed by William Davie, Director of Knowledge at Schlumberger Sema, France, who envisaged the need for transparency in the process of progress through competition. He is motivated by the recognition of effective action, symbolised by a score – in this case 9 : 0. The use of materials is deliberate: wood giving the sense of a supportive material, stone as intransigent, and crucially ‘versus’ in a transparent material.

3. Egyptian Horses
Proposed by Martin Fehrmann, Managing Director of DaimlerChrysler Finance, uk, who spoke of the etherial beauty of the Egyptian horse and alluded to a similar purity in spirit. Fehrmann initiated a form where each part precedes the next in a harmonic, proportional continuity and aims to create a sense that what we see, continues, unseen, to form a divine whole.

4. Three Pebbles
Sculpture proposed by Cliff Burrows, Managing Director of Starbucks, uk, who, when asked about his radical loyalties, spoke of a connection to the small things in life. His sculpture focuses on the minutiae of discernible differences found in the generic, and the value of observing such distinctions. Therein lies the wish to slow down our thought processes, and in doing so think not only of our immediate lives but their future repercussions.

5. Neuron
(“Faster than light or sound it is us who have the gift to be whatever we want with our thoughts and reach the uni- verse with our feelings.” M.Carvalho)
Sculpture proposed by Susana Carvalho, President of J. Walter Thompson, Portugal, who chose the title containing a poem by her father. She raised the necessity of being radically loyal towards our individual values – as opposed to loyalty as a means to an end. The neuron represents the power of an individual’s mind, its ultimate independence, and is an image of who each of us are within the passing moments of our lives. Maquette, bronze with black and white patina. 80 × 34 × 6 cm.

Series of five maquettes displayed on oak stands
2003–6:

1. Adapt and Survive
2006
Bronze with white patina. 44 × 9 × 10 cm.

2. Effectual versus Ineffectual
2005
Maquette: wood, steel, perspex, plaster and pigment. 􏰀
65 × 35 × 8 cm.

3. Egyptian Horses
2006
Powder-coated steel. 64 × 32 × 32 cm.

4. Three Pebbles
2006
Plaster

5. Neuron
2006
Bronze with grey and white patinas.

Exhibitions:
Radical Loyalty has been exhibited in Regenerate Art, Kunstverein Muenchen, 2014; Elegance, Kolnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, 2007; British Art Show 6, Hayward Gallery curated exhibition touring Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle and venues cross Manchester, Nottingham and Bristol, 2005-6; Unfinished Business, MoCA, Blegrade, 2006; Radical Loyalty, Studio Voltaire, London, 2006; Chris Evans, STORE, London, 2005; Shiftscale, Kumu Art Museum, Tallin, 2006; Radical Loyalty, Artconnexion, Lille, 2003; Radical Loyalty, Tramway Project Space, Glasgow, 2003; Ill Communication, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, 2003.