Alex Chinneck

Alex Chinneck
Alex Chinneck standing next to A Pound of Flesh for 50p
Born1984 (age 39–40)
NationalityBritish
EducationChelsea College of Arts, Royal British Society of Sculptors
Known forPublic art, sculpture
Notable workA Pound of Flesh for 50p

Alex Chinneck MRSS (born 1 October 1984) is a British sculptor known for creating temporary public artworks.

Early life

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Alex was educated at Bedford Modern School, where his father taught PE.[1] He had ambitions to become a cricketer, having captained his school team at county level, before his interest in art at the age of 16.[2] He studied painting at Chelsea College of Arts, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, and became a Member of the Royal Society of Sculptors.[3]

Career

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Shortly after college, he was granted a Gilbert Bayes award by the Royal Society of Sculptors to help in his transition to professional practice, following which he collaborated with Conrad Shawcross on his work.[4] After initially focusing on small sculptures, influenced by House designed by Rachel Whiteread and the work of Richard Wilson, Chinneck started working on large scale designs.[5]

Most of Chinneck's earliest public artworks were realised across Greater London. His early works include Telling the Truth Through False Teeth (2012), where the artist used 1,248 pieces of glass to create 312 identically smashed windows across the derelict facade of a factory in Hackney, From the Knees of my Nose to the Belly of my Toes (2013) in Margate where Chinneck created the illusion that the entire facade of house had slid into the garden, and Under the Weather but Over the Moon (2013), a commercial property situated on Blackfriars Road created to look as if it had become completely inverted.[6][7] For his work in Hackney, local residents have described Chinneck as the "Banksy of Glass".[8][9]

Subsequent works include Take my Lightning but Don't Steal my Thunder (2014), a building located in Covent Garden designed to appear as if it floated in the air, and A Pound of Flesh for 50p (2014), a house on Southwark Street made from 7,500 paraffin wax bricks which slowly melted.[10][11] The installation, Pick Yourself Up and Pull Yourself Together (2015) saw a Vauxhall Corsa suspended upside down in Southbank Centre car park.[12]

In 2015, Chinneck was commissioned to create one of the flagship projects for London Design Festival on Greenwich Peninsula. Chinneck’s response to the site - an inverted electricity pylon standing 37 metres tall - has been voted among the best public artworks in London.[13] Titled A bullet from a shooting star, the sculpture forms part of The Line, London’s first dedicated public art walk, which also features work by Anthony Gormley and Anish Kapoor.

The artist’s first permanent London landmark was completed in 2017. Six pins and half a dozen needles (2017) creates the illusion that the front of a building on Fulham Palace Road has been dramatically cracked into two halves.[14]

In 2018, Chinneck was commissioned to create a temporary intervention for a development site in Ashford. His installation Open to the Public created the illusion that the walls of a 1960s office block had been unzipped to reveal the interior. The following year, in Italy, the artist created the same feat on a larger scale, unzipping the walls and floor of a seemingly historic Milanese building for Milan Design Week. The installation A sprinkle of light and a spoonful of night was named by Dezeen as one of the top ten art installations of 2019.[15]

For his most recent public intervention, Alphabetti Spaghetti (2019), the artist has tied a series of traditional red pillar post boxes into knots. The artwork appeared overnight in three towns across England.[16]

The Guardian has called Chinneck a "master of architectural illusion".[5] Alex Chinneck won the 33rd GNMH AWARD.

Selected works

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  • Telling the Truth Through False Teeth (2012)
  • From the Knees of my Nose to the Belly of my Toes (2013)
  • Under the Weather but Over the Moon (2013)
  • Take my Lightning but Don't Steal my Thunder (2014)
  • A Pound of Flesh for 50p (2014)
  • Pick Yourself Up and Pull Yourself Together (2015)
  • A Bullet from a Shooting Star (2015)[17]
  • Six pins and half a dozen needles (2017)
  • Open to the public (2018)
  • A sprinkle of light and a spoonful of night (2019)
  • Alphabetti Spaghetti (2019)
  • Loop-de-Loop Canal Boat (2024)
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  • From the knees of my nose to the belly of my toes
    From the knees of my nose to the belly of my toes
  • Under the weather but over the moon
    Under the weather but over the moon
  • A bullet from a shooting star 2015
    A bullet from a shooting star 2015
  • A pound of flesh for 50p (The Melting House)
    A pound of flesh for 50p (The Melting House)
  • Straight jacket star jumps
    Straight jacket star jumps
  • Art sculpture in West London
    Art sculpture in West London
  • Alphabetti Spaghetti in Canning Town, London
    Alphabetti Spaghetti in Canning Town, London

References

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  1. ^ "Artist turns the house upside down in Blackfriars". Bedfordshire News. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  2. ^ Mohammed, Syma (19 October 2013). "Hackney artist wins acclaim for house that appears to be falling down". Hackney Gazette. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  3. ^ "Alex Chinneck MRSS". Royal Society of Sculptors. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  4. ^ Lingham, Daniel (26 June 2014). "Interview with Alex Chinneck". Sculpture Vox. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  5. ^ a b Wainwright, Oliver (2 October 2014). "Property boom: Alex Chinneck's brain-spinning trick in Covent Garden". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  6. ^ Macdonald, Fiona (10 October 2014). "Alex Chinneck: The man who makes houses melt". BBC. Archived from the original on 11 October 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  7. ^ Karbowska, Iwona (4 December 2013). "In pictures: 'The Upside Down House' art installation unveiled". The Independent. Archived from the original on 4 December 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  8. ^ "Telling the Truth Through False Teeth by Alex Chinneck". Dezeen. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
  9. ^ Milliard, Coline (18 July 2012). ""Banksy of Glass" Pushes Broken Window Theory to New Heights". Blouinartinfo. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  10. ^ Weingus, Leigh (30 October 2014). "This Creepy Wax House Is Slowly Melting to the Ground in the Middle of London". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  11. ^ Alleyne, Allyssia (25 November 2014). "Strange case of the melting house: Alex Chinneck's mind-bending buildings". CNN. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  12. ^ Livingstone, Cheryl (19 February 2015). "Artist gets behind the wheel of new Vauxhall sculpture". The Press and Journal. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  13. ^ "Top 20 public sculptures in London". Time Out London. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  14. ^ "Alex Chinneck Unveils First Permanent Artwork at Assembly London". Artlyst. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  15. ^ "Dezeen's top 10 installations of 2019". Dezeen. 15 December 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  16. ^ "Artist Alex Chinneck ties post boxes in knots across the UK for his latest public artwork". artdaily.cc. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  17. ^ "Alex Chinneck". The Line. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
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