Tuesday, 16 January 2007
Aden Hynes -
Aden comes across as a very happy creative person with a fantastic enthusiasm about him.One of the very first things I noticed about him was his van which has a very attention grabbing 3D sculpture on top of the van.
What is encouraging is how successful Aden is, and how much he loves his work. With a fantastic successful track record of working for TV, Film, Theatre, Exhibitions, Video, Museums, and all aspects of the promotional and advertising world. He and his staff (notably one of them is Jamie Livermore who is the Acting Chairman of STA
RT) have previously worked on projects for, amongst others, British Airways, The British Museums, Cadbury's, Madame Tussauds, Michelin, and Pink Floyd.One very notable project was for The Orange British Academy Awards BAFTA Mask, a polystyrene carving of a mask standing 4 meters tall, covered in glass fibre.
He is working on another BAFTA award mask now!
An ongoing project that Aden is very excited about is the 'Boxton Bagsville characters' - hand-operated puppet, studio based, live action series telling stories from Boxton-Bagsville. He is working on this with his business partner Glen, you can read more about them in the above blog 'Boxton Bagsville'.
I posed some questions to Aden:
Tell me about your inspirations and a bit about your family
I find the balance between work and home a real juggling act, but I personally believe each is as important as the other. The workshop brings in the money and pays the bills, whilst my own sculpture satisfies my artistic side and my family keeps my feet firmly on the ground. My wife and four boys put everything into perspective.My wife Sue is as much my inspiration and encourages rather than stifles my crazy ideas, giving me the freedom to express myself without question.
My initial inspiration started at home from my mother. An incredibly hard working woman, holding down a position in a factory working shifts day and night, and, if that’s not enough she also had to bring up six children as a one parent family. I don’t know how she did it.My Mother always encouraged me in everything I did. She gave me the freedom to create my sculptures in my bedroom without complaint.Although I have three sisters and two brothers, with all of them finding careers and full time paid work, she always said, “Do something you want to do first, and if that doesn’t work then get a job!”
Tell me about some of your projects, from the biggest down to the smallest.
One of the largest commissions to date was a scenic set building project. The work was to fit inside a nightclub/restaurant/games area. It was called Smilin’ Sams and the space was around 20000 sq m. The scene was a western town, made from 4” thick polystyrene sheets. The run of walls laid out end to end would have been about a mile long. Three separate sets were made for Stevenage, Liverpool and Nottingham, two being constructed at the same time!.The smallest piece of work I have done was miniature heads for a museum restoration project. Very time consuming and not particularly rewarding.
What has been your scariest or funniest moment?
I think my scariest moment, or one of them, was quite early on in my career.It was when I made the Dragons head for the log flume ride at Chessington World of Adventures, about 20 years ago. I had carved the head from polystyrene blocks; each block was 8’ x 4’, in a large warehouse in Luton. I was to transport the Dragon’s head to Chessington, hire a crane which would pick the head up and lower it down onto the log flume. The width of the Dragon’s head had to fix accurately onto the flume. The most heart stopping moment I have ever had was when the head was getting closer to the flume, lowering slowly, the chief architect said to me, just in passing, ‘the log flume gap is 1.2m wide’ – he had worked in metres and I had worked in feet and inches! The head was still lowering slowly down. That was the longest minute of my life, only 60 seconds, but it seemed like an eternity. And yes, the head fitted the flume snugly. Phew! Sheer relief was experienced. As this was one of my first, large projects as a freelance sculptor, I felt that anything else I took on after that would be a breeze.
One of the jobs that was a nightmare doing was when I was commissioned to sculpt a life-size horse. The horse had to be an exact likeness.
First I took photos and numerous measurements, and then I constructed a metal armature and sculpted the horse form from clay. When I was happy with the sculpture, I invited the client down to view the work. When she turned up she came in through the back shutter entrance.
We talked a little about the sculpture, and thenOne clay and one real! My client had brought down the actual horse I was sculpting to compare them side by side. My client walked the male horse around the sculpture asking it what he thought of it! The real horse looked at its clay self straight in the eye for a bit, while we talked and had a cup of tea.
she said that she liked the work very much but she was not the important one. I was confused and thought that she had someone else in the car. She said she would go and get him.
I waited inside and put on the kettle for a cup of tea. When I looked around there were two horses standing in my studio!
This was a mixed blessing. I was pleased that both of my clients loved the horse, however, on the other hand, when the four legged client mounted the clay horse the combined weight bent the metalwork structure and they both ended up on the floor, completely ruining all the work I had done! Good result, but a total waste of time and I had to start all over again. I did manage to finish the horse in the end and cast him in cold bronze resin. He now stands in pride of place in a stately home.The next moment, the real horse must have approved of it as when we looked, he had mounted the clay sculpture. He had obviously fallen in love with himself!
Tell me about your self-promotional vehicle
The reason I have a 4 x 4 truck arises from when I was on location for an album cover shoot for Pink Floyd. I had a small, white van which I parked in the field where I was erecting 2 large heads.
Just when the sun was setting, the photographer said the time was right to shoot so to clear the area ie everyone and my white van. When I tried to move the van it had become stuck fast in the mud, most embarrassing. It took 12 scaffolders to personally put long bars under the van and lift it out of the way. I decided then and there that I would buy a new van which had four wheel drive to avoid any further moments like that.
I decided to customize the van to advertise my company name and business. I thought about this long and hard. I looked at many types of advertising methods but found them to be rather dull and boring. For me, the Americans have a far more interesting approach to promoting their businesses. I then looked at what I really wanted to say about my company and decided on the use of 3D sculpture, committing my van to the purpose of displaying my craft. I also realised that, rather than just being technically clever, I would use humour to drive the message home. Somehow, creating a funny situation seems to make the message or image stick in your head, plus, being quite enjoyable to drive around in. Everyone remarks on the van and it has been a great source of revenue for my company.
I don't know how you find the time, but you do some work in schools too, tell me about this.
DE LA SALLE SECONDARY SCHOOL
I worked with year 10 at De La Salle Secondary School. When I came into the school the students were not quite sure what they were letting themselves in for. On my first visit to the school I showed them the work I had done and talked about running a business where you were actually doing something you enjoyed, ‘mixing business with pleasure’, as they said, is not very common. I also gave them a demonstration on plaster casting, which they all took part in.
We then made drawings in the style of Spitting Image. Very quick sketches of their friends on paper with charcoal allowed them to be wicked in creating a caricature of each other.
The following day they all came down to my sculpture studio armed with the drawings from the previous day. I supplied them all with a stand, clay and tools and set them to work creating a 3D portrait from the drawings they had. Shrieks of laughter and banter was bandied around the studio, fast music was played to speed up the modelling process and energy levels.
At the end of the day we all had a secret vote. There were to be two winners, 1 male, and 1 female. The two winning pieces were moulded and cast in plaster paris by me as a finished piece of work. All the other clay heads were put back into the bag of clay.
The students made me a massive ‘Close Encounters’ chocolate biscuit sculpture in appreciation of having good fun in the studio and a totally different style of lesson. I have had a couple of the students down to my studio on work experience since.
CHALVEDON SECONDARY SCHOOL
http://lisajhornersdiary.blogspot.com/2007/01/chalvedon-secondary-school.html
THE BILLERICAY SECONDARY SCHOOL
http://lisajhornersdiary.blogspot.com/2007/01/billericay-secondary-school.html
JANET DUKE INFANT SCHOOL (YEARS R - 2)
http://lisajhornersdiary.blogspot.com/2007/01/janet-duke-infant-school.html
MERRYLANDS PRIMARY SCHOOL (YEARS 3 - 6)
http://lisajhornersdiary.blogspot.com/2007/01/merrylands-primary-school.html
BASIDON COLLEGE
http://lisajhornersdiary.blogspot.com/2007/01/basildon-college.html
PRIVATE COMMISSION – working with children in selecting their favourite Disney characters and working out the composition of the mural.
http://www.sculpturestudios.co.uk/
Labels: Aden Hynes, Artists
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