PHIPP STREET
This was my first studio, Martin Naylor got me in.
I moved in in 1973, while I was still working on my Degree show. At the time I had a broken right wrist in plaster. I was pretty skint so started working as Ivor Abrahams' assistant. He had a studio in Leonard Street, just around the corner. My studio was 1200 sq.ft. with no windows. So each day I was going from Old Street to Wimbledon to make work, then coming back to work on the studio to make it habitable, then working in Ivor's studio for a few hours at £1 an hour, all with a broken wrist. Happy days. I had Victorian overhead gas heaters, which all worked so once I'd got all the windows covered in polythene then boarded across, it was very cosy. I wanted the studio to stay on one time, so whenever I entered it was the same time, so no natural light.
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Above is the poster for my first show in 74. Right is my first review by Richard Cork. It shows the Phipp street building and a piece of my work upside down. I had a lot of resentment because of the number of lines on my work. It was the first Space Open Studios Exhibition in 1975. |