What do strange scissors, miniature beds, creaky clockwork, novelty erasers, tools of the stuccatore and coffin photos all have in common? They’re some of the thirty subjects of obscure enthusiasms who appeared, with their owners, one day recently in Bloomsbury at the Art Workers Guild Tabletop Museum event.
I wasn’t absolutely sure I’d make it as I was recovering from recent eye surgery, but with the help of a kind friend who drove me and my clockwork companions to the venue, paracetemol and a pair of sunglasses, all was well. What larks!
Robotina was there too, one of my earliest books (published by Faber), keeping a relatively low profile at the end of my table. Keys to operate the clockwork creatures (some of whose metal innards were reluctant to stir) were strung round my neck, there was a certain amount of creaking and a whirring. I couldn’t resist encouraging one or two visitors to draw their favourites.
Film director Mike Leigh called in at the event, and kindly contributed a drawing. I’d met him many years ago at a party when I was visiting lecturer at Camberwell Art College. He told me he’d spent a very happy time there doing a Foundation course, and we briefly discussed the importance of art colleges.
The clockwork creatures usually live on a shelf above my work desk, their creaky mechanisms occasionally and disconcertingly activated at night by the vibrations of passing trains.
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