'Sculpture Unit', 2005-

Sculpture unit is a modular structure made from components that have been especially manufactured in China.
Working with specialist import/export manufacturing companies in Shanghai and Ningbo a simple shape was produced that can be endlessly combined to create structural shapes.

Sculpture Unit started as a two screen film of recycling activity taking place in Shanghai. Here workers, often using bicycles and trolleys, bring waste metals, wood and plastics that they have collected by hand. These materials are then painstakingly seperated and packed onto lorries for recyling.

Sculpture Unit is a jorney of an artist going to China and from the miasma of manufacturing bringing back a mass-produced item/art object. It is a study of a global system of manufacturing abroad, and the cost of labour reflected in an item. Sculpture Unit is made cheaply in Ningbo and then travels across the world to the UK, incurring shipping and customs costs all along this route.

In the UK these chromed modules are assembled by the artist into various compositions. They cab be dissassembled, ordered, assembled by others and are charged by the Unit. Each Unit has become a luxury item, maybe 500x it's original production cost.

it is intended that the process of this production will be documented in a book that contains shiiping invoices, technical drawings and protypes.

Sculpture Unit is intended as a formal sculpture that refers to minimal works of the 60s but using the materals of objects found in Chinese supermarkets. Sculpture Unit assemblages are made on square mats of coloured felt that defines an area (a play area) but also protects the units from scratches. The play area alludes to the performative act of assembling.

Larger assemblages are built with bamboo scaffolding. The ancient scaffolding material supports the ultra new plastic material creating a strong visual relationship between the two. This structure is then a support for further items such as small LCD screens and various curio.