ARTWORKS

Frankie Rockett

Straylight 1

Straylight 1 explores the dystopian near-future so clearly mapped out by science fiction visionaries such as Philip K Dick and William Gibson, amongst others. It is the crowded, cold, wet, poisoned future that mankind has made for itself. No longer shocking, it's dark beauty and dreamlike palette seduces the senses with a cocktail of broken technologies in a liminal landscape.

This digital print affords us a preview; a glimpse of that near world.

This print is for sale in the Shop.

Straylight 2

This work looks more closely into the world of 'Straylight', going in close to witness the human level amidst the chaos.

This digital print visits a young woman, elegantly dressed, but located in the harsh, cold, wet streets of a metropolis. She is alone, but confident and strong. Welcome to the new normal, where capability is confidence, and your only compass with which to navigate these unforgiving streets.

This print is for sale in the Shop.

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari was perhaps the very first 'horror' film in what was then the fascinating new medium of film. The character Cesare was the prototype of both what we call today a 'zombie', but more compellingly, the earliest example of the 'misunderstood monster' that rivalled Frankenstein's 'monster' which also first appeared on screen in the same year.

This screen print catches that moment when an unfortunate circumstances seems irevocably converted to guilt.

This print is for sale in the Shop.

Bunny Girl

This is a work inspired by Helmut Newton's 1975 photograph of Elsa Peretti wearing a Bunny Girl outfit, standing on a New York balcony with the skyline as a backdrop.

I wanted to strip away as much of the gloss as possible and look at the glamour in it's simplest form. To do this, I started by complicating it as much as possible, and then subtracting until only one colour remained. After re-creating the scene with 3D software, a virtual print was converted into a physical screen print.

This print is for sale in the Shop.

Flying Machine

Based on Leonardo DaVinci's plans for a flying machine. For me, a form whose importance goes far beyond the simple ambition of flight. It seems to have a power all it's own, like some archaic unknown symbol.

I wanted to capture something of the immense power that makes you hold your breath for a moment when you see a structure like this. In some small measure, I feel I have it here, like glimpsing a lost alchemical secret.

This print is for sale in the Shop.

Into the Breech

This digital work was a response to the dangerous political situation in the US with the election of President Trump. I wanted to say something about the importance of positive action at such moments in history. It struck me that the US is playing Russian Roulette - with all our futures.

I decided to write a simple poem which I then cast as a gun to underline the potentially lethal intensity of this time.

This print is for sale in the Shop.

Life Story

People say 'life's a journey', and this work - some 10 years in it's planning - makes that explicit, cataloging my evolving personal biography & subjective tastes in film, art, literature & more. Inspired by Simon Patterson's The Great Bear, I wanted to create something more personal and intimate; a visual diary and map of where my life has taken me on this journey so far.

Detail shown only. Original map © London Underground Ltd.

Artist's private collection. Not for sale.

Control

This mixed media work explores themes of conformity and freedom and asks what form our self-made prisons take, and more importantly, how we construct our escape plans. For most of us that might be two weeks holiday a year, while for others, darker options are always on the table; drink, drugs, or beyond.

Control sees the rebel going awol to Escape into it's personal garden of Eden, whatever form that might take.

Framed edition of one: 27 x 27 x 6.5mm. P.O.A.

Learning to Fly

Our earliest recorded practical attempts to fly reach back at least as far as Da Vinci, and our mythological strivings as far as Icarus. The cost of reaching skyward was often a high one - no pun intended - and many pioneers paid the ultimate price. This work looks at the liminal area between myth and machine, questioning our notion of 'progress'.

Edition of 7 (16.5 x 23.4 inches). P.O.A.

Field Notes from the Future

It's said that hindsight is a wonderful thing, and doubtless it's true that an authentic perspective is only available to us when looking back. When picking through the fragments of our civilisation, what beauty and banality might a future archeologist make of who we were and how we organised our world, in our time?

Edition of 12 (11.7 x 16.5 inches). P.O.A.

"You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul."

George Bernard Shaw.

Factory

Factory Records was a record label whose unique approach enabled it to change the face of music. Under the visionary leadership of Tony Wilson, their unique visual design was handled by Peter Saville, and his logo for Factory remains an enduring icon to this day.

Experimenting with stained glass, so often a medium associated with softer more lyrical subjects, I wanted to apply it to the harsher industrial themes suggested by Factory Records' design aesthetic. The result is 'Factory'.

Artist's private collection. Not for sale.

Kandinsky

Russian painter and art theorist Wassily Kandinsky spent some time teaching at the Bauhaus school of art and architecture from 1922 until 1933. There he developed a theory that related particular colours to the three primary forms [circle, square, triangle], arguing that for example blue increased the circularity of a circle, or at least our emotional or spiritual response to it.

I wanted to revisit those possibilities and intensify the colour/form relationship even further by illuminating them with the use of stained glass techniques.

Artist's private collection. Not for sale.

"The potential of Art Box to impact positively upon knowledge, creativity, and creative collaboration is unlimited."

Elizabeth Broun
Director
The Smithsonian Museum of American Art.

Nighthawks

Edward Hopper's definitive 20th century American painting as never experienced before. In common with all other works encompassed by the Art Box projet, we go inside the canvas to sample the mood from the other side of the surface. Here, on the eve of war, those unable to sleep sit silent in their emptiness. The empty spaces feel unbearably full of alienation and harsh lighting.

Attack of the 50Ft Woman

As with other media I often draw on cinema for inspiration, and unsurprisingly perhaps, machinima is a natural media for exploration. Covering the art of popular culture as readily as the old masters, Art Box explores the 'poster moment' from the cult 1958 film. Allison Hayes forever frozen above that motorway, sorting through the cars like child's toys looking for her errant husband.

Art Box

Art Box was a completely innovative first of it's kind project that began in 2009. For the next 5 years, some 80 great works were recreated inside a virtual environment. Then the users were not only able to step into the canvas to enter into and explore that canvas (or photograph) from the inside, it also encouraged visitors to participate in the scenes and become part of the art themselves.

Elizabeth Broun, Director of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art was one of the first to pick up on Art Box and was a passionate advocate for this project. She says;

“The images are innovative, compelling and even beautiful in the way that they are intended to be, as homage to the original masters. I understand that a great deal of technical sophistication underpins work of this quality.

Inspiring creativity lies at the heart of what Art Box is about, and is achieving. Engaging with individuals whose cultural life would not normally embrace regular encounters with art - fine or contemporary, and eliciting an appreciation and awarenes of that art in a setting that is both fun and memorable will leave a legacy of cultural enrichment that will last a lifetime. Similarly, engaging with established art lovers in a new and innovative environment can provoke fresh insights and a re-evaluation of established dogmas about what art is and it's role in the life of the individual and the community. The potential of Art Box to impact positively upon knowledge, creativity, and creative collaboration is unlimited.”

In total some 80 works of art were re-imagined and recreated in a digital setting. The environment chosen was part of a massive multiplayer system which made it possible to encourage real people, via their avatars, to inhabit the roles of the central characters in famous (and not so famous) artworks. In this way it becomes possible to re-style, re-interpret and re-make great art, according to your own vision. The work could be experienced fully immersively using the Occulous Rift or via a standard monitor. The results were then available as digital photographs which were taken away and used by the (verified 47,782) participants in countless ways, from online identities to customised phone cases.

In a final phase, the virtual was bought into the physical world as a video installation which was shown at several art fairs and festivals in London. Today it remains available online in both interactive (LFGrid) and passive (Youtube) forms.