http://cargocollective.com R. M. Phoenix Sat, 26 Jan 2013 06:54:29 +0000 http://cargocollective.com en http://cargocollective.com/rmphoenix/Other-Projects http://cargocollective.com/rmphoenix/following/rmphoenix/Other-Projects Sat, 26 Jan 2013 06:54:29 +0000 R. M. Phoenix 825778 Make a Mark // 2013 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/LOGO-FINAL-5.jpg" width="200" height="188" width_o="200" height_o="188" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/LOGO-FINAL-5_o.jpg" data-mid="25922330" border="0" align="left"/> Make a Mark is a Community Interest Company working to help improve the wellbeing and development of people of all ages and backgrounds through art, craft and creativity. We are primarily based in and around the Llangollen area of North Wales, providing workshops and activities which support the enjoyment and exploration of art-making. make-a-mark.co.uk Portable Isolation Unit // 2011 - 2012 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/piu-logo-anna-adjust-new2.jpg" width="150" height="138" width_o="150" height_o="138" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/piu-logo-anna-adjust-new2_o.jpg" data-mid="25921848" border="0" align="left"/> A group of 4 artists, (Wesley Goatley, Clémence Grieco, anna Hughes & R. M. Phoenix) previously working independently to each other, brought together by chance meeting and a shared enthusiasm for each other’s work and ideas. In mid-April 2011 we started a conversation through email and a private online forum which very quickly developed into something akin to a self-initiated, placeless residency. Within this context we have been able to collectively delve into the nature of each other's work, influences and ideas, as well as questions surrounding the potential of an exhibition outside of and beyond what normally constitutes a group show. Each participant dedicates their time, thought and enthusiasm as daily nourishment for our individual practices and this collective endeavour. Still in a process of development and exploration, we have brought our separate artistic practices together under the collective name Portable Isolation Unit. Deriving from our conversations and referring to a past work by one of us of a log cabin tent, with its own pop up forest, that could be put up anywhere in the city, to create a kind of inner city escape method. This collective title refers to different ideas we have regarding the individual's relationship to the wider world. Download the full exhibition text for 'A Happy Life in the Mountains' here soon. portableisolationunit.com <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/01.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/01_o.jpg" data-mid="25922061" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/01_1.jpg" width="500" height="339" width_o="500" height_o="339" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/01_1_o.jpg" data-mid="25922062" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/02.jpg" width="500" height="333" width_o="500" height_o="333" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/02_o.jpg" data-mid="25922063" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/02_2.jpg" width="500" height="333" width_o="500" height_o="333" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/02_2_o.jpg" data-mid="25922064" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/03.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/03_o.jpg" data-mid="25922066" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/03_3.jpg" width="500" height="333" width_o="500" height_o="333" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/03_3_o.jpg" data-mid="25922067" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/04.jpg" width="334" height="500" width_o="334" height_o="500" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/04_o.jpg" data-mid="25922068" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/04_4.jpg" width="500" height="318" width_o="500" height_o="318" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/04_4_o.jpg" data-mid="25922070" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/05.jpg" width="334" height="500" width_o="334" height_o="500" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/05_o.jpg" data-mid="25922071" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/05_5.jpg" width="500" height="383" width_o="500" height_o="383" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/05_5_o.jpg" data-mid="25922072" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/06.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/06_o.jpg" data-mid="25922073" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/06_6.jpg" width="500" height="333" width_o="500" height_o="333" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/06_6_o.jpg" data-mid="25922074" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/07.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/07_o.jpg" data-mid="25922076" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/07_7.jpg" width="500" height="333" width_o="500" height_o="333" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/07_7_o.jpg" data-mid="25922077" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/08.jpg" width="334" height="500" width_o="334" height_o="500" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/08_o.jpg" data-mid="25922081" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/08_8.jpg" width="286" height="500" width_o="286" height_o="500" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/08_8_o.jpg" data-mid="25922085" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/09.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/09_o.jpg" data-mid="25922089" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/09_9.jpg" width="500" height="356" width_o="500" height_o="356" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/09_9_o.jpg" data-mid="25922091" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/10.jpg" width="500" height="333" width_o="500" height_o="333" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/10_o.jpg" data-mid="25922094" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/10_10.jpg" width="500" height="333" width_o="500" height_o="333" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/10_10_o.jpg" data-mid="25922100" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/11.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/11_o.jpg" data-mid="25922103" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/11_11.jpg" width="333" height="500" width_o="333" height_o="500" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/11_11_o.jpg" data-mid="25922106" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/17.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/17_o.jpg" data-mid="25922150" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/12.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/12_o.jpg" data-mid="25922111" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/12_12.jpg" width="500" height="293" width_o="500" height_o="293" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/12_12_o.jpg" data-mid="25922113" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/20.jpg" width="500" height="333" width_o="500" height_o="333" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/20_o.jpg" data-mid="25922177" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/21.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/21_o.jpg" data-mid="25922180" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/18.jpg" width="500" height="333" width_o="500" height_o="333" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/18_o.jpg" data-mid="25922169" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/13.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/13_o.jpg" data-mid="25922117" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/13_13.jpg" width="500" height="333" width_o="500" height_o="333" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/13_13_o.jpg" data-mid="25922120" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/14.jpg" width="334" height="500" width_o="334" height_o="500" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/14_o.jpg" data-mid="25922125" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/14_14.jpg" width="500" height="305" width_o="500" height_o="305" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/14_14_o.jpg" data-mid="25922128" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/15.jpg" width="334" height="500" width_o="334" height_o="500" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/15_o.jpg" data-mid="25922130" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/15_15.jpg" width="500" height="333" width_o="500" height_o="333" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/15_15_o.jpg" data-mid="25922134" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/16.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/16_o.jpg" data-mid="25922139" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/16_16.jpg" width="359" height="500" width_o="359" height_o="500" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/16_16_o.jpg" data-mid="25922144" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/19.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/19_o.jpg" data-mid="25922175" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/22.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/22_o.jpg" data-mid="25922183" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/23.jpg" width="334" height="500" width_o="334" height_o="500" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/23_o.jpg" data-mid="25922187" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/24.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/24_o.jpg" data-mid="25922193" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/25.jpg" width="334" height="500" width_o="334" height_o="500" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/25_o.jpg" data-mid="25922196" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/26.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/26_o.jpg" data-mid="25922197" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/27.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/27_o.jpg" data-mid="25922198" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/28.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/28_o.jpg" data-mid="25922200" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/29.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/29_o.jpg" data-mid="25922201" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/30.jpg" width="500" height="334" width_o="500" height_o="334" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/30_o.jpg" data-mid="25922202" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/Blindspot1_web.jpg" width="394" height="500" width_o="394" height_o="500" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/Blindspot1_web_o.jpg" data-mid="25922205" border="0" align="left"/> Failedrockstar // 2003 - 2010 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/handwritten logo crop small.jpg" width="600" height="132" width_o="600" height_o="132" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/handwritten logo crop small_o.jpg" data-mid="25921358" border="0" align="left"/> Failedrockstar is about people committing to their creativity despite the inherent risk of failure involved. Beginning in 2003 as a personal photocopied zine, Failedrockstar soon developed into a quality art publication, supporting and promoting a wide-range of drawing, painting, writing, photography and design, all presented in a specially handmade format. After a hiatus of a couple of years Failedrockstar began anew focusing on an ongoing series of interviews with artists from a range of disciplines. Through talking to creative people, about how and why they do what they do, Failedrockstar is interested in exploring and documenting the creative process and the artistic life. Download the interviews with Andy Harper / David Gibson / Jeff Soto / James Ryan / Mr. Bingo / Rich Ardagh / Chloe Early & Conor Harrington / Adam Oehlers & Nom Kinnear King / Muju / Freya Douglas-Morris here soon <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/rich-arm-about-mainimage-2.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/rich-arm-about-mainimage-2_o.jpg" data-mid="25921564" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/issue-one-main.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/issue-one-main_o.jpg" data-mid="25921376" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/1-support-01.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/1-support-01_o.jpg" data-mid="25921381" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/1-support-02.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/1-support-02_o.jpg" data-mid="25921382" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/1-support-03.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/1-support-03_o.jpg" data-mid="25921384" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/1-support-04.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/1-support-04_o.jpg" data-mid="25921388" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/issue-2-main-02.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/issue-2-main-02_o.jpg" data-mid="25921390" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/2-support-01.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/2-support-01_o.jpg" data-mid="25921410" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/2-support-02.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/2-support-02_o.jpg" data-mid="25921413" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/2-support-03.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/2-support-03_o.jpg" data-mid="25921416" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/2-support-04.jpg" width="640" 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src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/3-support-03.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/3-support-03_o.jpg" data-mid="25921430" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/3-support-04.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/3-support-04_o.jpg" data-mid="25921433" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/issue 4 mainimage-02-web.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/issue 4 mainimage-02-web_o.jpg" data-mid="25921472" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/4-support-01.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/4-support-01_o.jpg" data-mid="25921493" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/4-support-02.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/4-support-02_o.jpg" data-mid="25921495" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/4-support-03.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/4-support-03_o.jpg" data-mid="25921497" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/4-support-04.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/4-support-04_o.jpg" data-mid="25921499" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/4-support-05.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/4-support-05_o.jpg" data-mid="25921502" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/4-support-06.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/825778/4-support-06_o.jpg" data-mid="25921504" border="0" align="left"/> Make a Mark // 2013 Make a Mark is a Community Interest Company working to help improve the wellbeing and development of people of all ages and backgrounds... http://cargocollective.com/rmphoenix/Editions http://cargocollective.com/rmphoenix/following/rmphoenix/Editions Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:53:09 +0000 R. M. Phoenix 1184247 Anchor & Drift / September 2011 A 6.1 x 9.2”, 68 page, perfect bound book. 2-colour risographed wrap around (limited to the first 100 copies) w/ black & white inside pages & hand-drawn pencil line. Includes a short essay and a collection of drawings, photographs, paintings, furniture, exhibition installations & studio interiors from between March 2010 & August 2011. Published by Museums Press. / Buy here <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/01_12.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/01_12_o.jpg" data-mid="10149407" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/02_13.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/02_13_o.jpg" data-mid="10149409" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/03_14.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/03_14_o.jpg" data-mid="10149411" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/04_15.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/04_15_o.jpg" data-mid="10149413" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/05_16.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/05_16_o.jpg" data-mid="10149415" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/06_17.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/06_17_o.jpg" data-mid="10149416" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/07_18.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/07_18_o.jpg" data-mid="10149417" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/08_19.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/08_19_o.jpg" data-mid="10149418" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/09_20.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/09_20_o.jpg" data-mid="10149422" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/10_21.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/10_21_o.jpg" data-mid="10149424" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/11_22.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/11_22_o.jpg" data-mid="10149425" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/12_23.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/12_23_o.jpg" data-mid="10149426" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/13_24.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/13_24_o.jpg" data-mid="10149427" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/14_25.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/14_25_o.jpg" data-mid="10149429" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/15_26.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/15_26_o.jpg" data-mid="10149430" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/16_27.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/16_27_o.jpg" data-mid="10149431" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/17_28.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/17_28_o.jpg" data-mid="10149434" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/18_29.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/18_29_o.jpg" data-mid="10149436" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/19_30.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/19_30_o.jpg" data-mid="10149437" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/20_31.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/20_31_o.jpg" data-mid="10149438" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/21_32.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/21_32_o.jpg" data-mid="10149439" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/22_33.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/22_33_o.jpg" data-mid="10149440" border="0" align="left"/> ----- Little Paper Planes / September 2011 Six exclusive prints for Little Paper Planes. 8.5" x 11", printed with Epson Ultra Chrome archival inks on Hahnemuhle German etching paper. Each print is hand numbered, in an edition of 50, along with my signature printed in the border. Each print also comes with a Certificate of Authenticity printed on the back. Buy here <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/01_42.jpg" width="436" height="548" width_o="436" height_o="548" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/01_42_o.jpg" data-mid="10828382" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/02_64.jpg" width="436" height="343" width_o="436" height_o="343" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/02_64_o.jpg" data-mid="10828384" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/03_65.jpg" width="436" height="335" width_o="436" height_o="335" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/03_65_o.jpg" data-mid="10828386" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/04_66.jpg" width="436" height="337" width_o="436" height_o="337" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/04_66_o.jpg" data-mid="10828387" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/05_46.jpg" width="436" height="564" width_o="436" height_o="564" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/05_46_o.jpg" data-mid="10828388" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/06_47.jpg" width="436" height="337" width_o="436" height_o="337" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/06_47_o.jpg" data-mid="10828389" border="0" align="left"/> ----- A Happy Life in the Mountains catalogue / September 2011 Catalogue for the Portable Isolation Unit exhibitions 'A Happy Life in the Mountains', featuring myself, Wesley Goatley, Clémence Grieco & Anna Hughes. A 17cm x 22cm handbound book, riso printed in black & green with digitally printed full colour plates, on 8 different papers. Includes work from each artist, an exclusive cd of music, edited excerpts of our conversations, an appendix of referenced texts, inserted full colour zines of both exhibitions, and excerpts from the diary of Dick Proenekke. An edition of 50. / Buy here <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/01_1.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/01_1_o.jpg" data-mid="10148788" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/02_2.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/02_2_o.jpg" data-mid="10148789" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/03_3.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/03_3_o.jpg" data-mid="10148790" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/04_4.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/04_4_o.jpg" data-mid="10148791" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/05_5.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/05_5_o.jpg" data-mid="10148792" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/06_6.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/06_6_o.jpg" data-mid="10148793" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/07.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/07_o.jpg" data-mid="10148794" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/08.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/08_o.jpg" data-mid="10148795" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/09.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/09_o.jpg" data-mid="10148796" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/10.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/10_o.jpg" data-mid="10148797" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/11.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/11_o.jpg" data-mid="10148798" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/12.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/12_o.jpg" data-mid="10148799" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/13.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/13_o.jpg" data-mid="10148800" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/14.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/14_o.jpg" data-mid="10148801" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/15.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/15_o.jpg" data-mid="10148802" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/16.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/16_o.jpg" data-mid="10148803" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/17.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/17_o.jpg" data-mid="10148804" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/18.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/18_o.jpg" data-mid="10148805" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/19.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/19_o.jpg" data-mid="10148806" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/20.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/20_o.jpg" data-mid="10148808" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/21.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/21_o.jpg" data-mid="10148809" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/22.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/22_o.jpg" data-mid="10148810" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/23.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/23_o.jpg" data-mid="10148811" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/24.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/24_o.jpg" data-mid="10148812" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/25.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/25_o.jpg" data-mid="10148813" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/26.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/26_o.jpg" data-mid="10148814" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/27.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/27_o.jpg" data-mid="10148815" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/28.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/28_o.jpg" data-mid="10148816" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/29.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/29_o.jpg" data-mid="10148817" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/30.jpg" width="500" height="375" width_o="500" height_o="375" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/30_o.jpg" data-mid="10148818" border="0" align="left"/> ----- Lists / April 2011 45 x 64 cm, 1 colour screenprint on pure white 250gsm Ability Offset SRA2. Edition of 30 hand stamped and numbered / Buy here <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/r_m_phoenix_one.jpg" width="397" height="567" width_o="397" height_o="567" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/r_m_phoenix_one_o.jpg" data-mid="10827957" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/02_43.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/02_43_o.jpg" data-mid="10827951" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/03_44.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/03_44_o.jpg" data-mid="10827954" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/04_45.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/04_45_o.jpg" data-mid="10827955" border="0" align="left"/> 'The drawing for ‘LISTS’ came about from thinking about how repeated lines can create knowledgeable space within an area that was previously a blank void. The grid created by these repeated lines, whether regular or irregular, is a way of establishing a framework that we can comprehend and impart meaning and order onto where previously there was only emptiness and fear. Originally I had intended to create a complete list of space within a particular measured area, but due to the nature of the rules I set myself, (within the whole space the drawn lines must each time work together to define a single part of that space that begins and ends at the same point and that must traverse, but not cover, the whole space and may be able to overlap previous partly defined spaces), that when I had exhausted all points around the outer limits of the whole space there was always areas left undefined. Therefore the final drawing is an incomplete, or failed, list of space. Within our lives, and the rules that we impose and that are imposed upon us, we never fully comprehend the meaning we seek. We are able to define our personal, individual space but we also accept incompleteness, uncertainty, and failure as an unavoidable presence.' ----- Sauna Youth 'LISTS' 7"/ April 2011 Edition of 300 housed in a 3-colour risographed sleeve. Collaborative design with skull drawing by Huxley Boon. Artists Edition of 10 with a hand-stamped and numbered extra edition tab and wrap-around riso-graphed poster. More Info <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/01 1.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/01 1_o.jpg" data-mid="10828570" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/02_72.jpg" width="425" height="567" width_o="425" height_o="567" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/02_72_o.jpg" data-mid="10828572" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/03_73.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/03_73_o.jpg" data-mid="10828575" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/04_74.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/04_74_o.jpg" data-mid="10828577" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/05_75.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/05_75_o.jpg" data-mid="10828578" border="0" align="left"/> ----- Nobody's Fault But [Mine] [Yours] [Ours] Mine / January 2011 Handmade, 19cm x 13.5cm, 17 pages, 3 spot colour riso printed on 3 different colour sugar paper & bound in heavy burgundy card. Comes with 2 riso prints & A4 exhibition poster. Edition of 40 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/01.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/01_o.jpg" data-mid="5709006" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/06.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/06_o.jpg" data-mid="5709017" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/02.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/02_o.jpg" data-mid="5709007" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/03.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/03_o.jpg" data-mid="5709009" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/04.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/04_o.jpg" data-mid="5709011" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/05.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/05_o.jpg" data-mid="5709014" border="0" align="left"/> ----- Mohawk / May 2010 A3 black riso print on mohawk superfine 270gsm. Edition of 25 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/01b_7.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/01b_7_o.jpg" data-mid="10828202" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/02b_8.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/02b_8_o.jpg" data-mid="10828209" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/03b_9.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/03b_9_o.jpg" data-mid="10828212" border="0" align="left"/> ----- Sauna Youth 'YOUTH' 7" / May 2010 300 pressed on black wax, with double photocopied recycled card sleeves in second-hand poly bags. Collaborative drawing with Huxley Boon. More Info <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/SY_Youth.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/SY_Youth_o.jpg" data-mid="10828740" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/drawing-youth.jpg" width="567" height="488" width_o="567" height_o="488" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/drawing-youth_o.jpg" data-mid="10828739" border="0" align="left"/> ----- Take Your Breath In When You Need It. And Let It Go When You Need To. / April 2010 A6 book of 24 photographs, laser printed & hand bound in silver paper. Edition of 25 / Buy here <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/01b.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/01b_o.jpg" data-mid="5709065" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/02b.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/02b_o.jpg" data-mid="5709067" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/03b.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/03b_o.jpg" data-mid="5709070" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/04b.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/04b_o.jpg" data-mid="5709076" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/05b.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/05b_o.jpg" data-mid="5709079" border="0" align="left"/> ----- Hot Damn 'Let's Do Something Cheap and Superficial' 7" / Feb 2009 The first 7" from the instrumental wonder-kids Hot Damn, featuring the songs "Let's do something Cheap and Superficial" and "The Bosun's Chronicle". More info <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/HD_7_sleeve_cover.jpg" width="320" height="314" width_o="320" height_o="314" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/HD_7_sleeve_cover_o.jpg" data-mid="10828849" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/hd-a.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/hd-a_o.jpg" data-mid="10828855" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/hd-b.jpg" width="567" height="425" width_o="567" height_o="425" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/1184247/hd-b_o.jpg" data-mid="10828857" border="0" align="left"/> Anchor & Drift / September 2011 A 6.1 x 9.2”, 68 page, perfect bound book. 2-colour risographed wrap around (limited to the first 100 copies) w/ black & white... http://cargocollective.com/rmphoenix/Work http://cargocollective.com/rmphoenix/following/rmphoenix/Work Wed, 01 Dec 2010 20:53:27 +0000 R. M. Phoenix 773479 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/For-Godforsaken_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/For-Godforsaken_o.jpg" data-mid="10713631" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Laying-Out-There_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Laying-Out-There_o.jpg" data-mid="10713846" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-02_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-02_o.jpg" data-mid="10832615" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-02_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-02_o.jpg" data-mid="10832541" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Chair_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Chair_o.jpg" data-mid="10714293" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-11_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-11_o.jpg" data-mid="10832637" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Black---White-Diamonds_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Black---White-Diamonds_o.jpg" data-mid="10713609" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Glyn-Ceiriog_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Glyn-Ceiriog_o.jpg" data-mid="10713633" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-08_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-08_o.jpg" data-mid="10832625" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-13_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-13_o.jpg" data-mid="10832645" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-33_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-33_o.jpg" data-mid="10832705" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-10_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-10_o.jpg" data-mid="10832564" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Black-Line-White_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Black-Line-White_o.jpg" data-mid="10713613" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-01_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-01_o.jpg" data-mid="10832584" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Appalachian-Journey_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Appalachian-Journey_o.jpg" data-mid="10713606" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Caravan_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Caravan_o.jpg" data-mid="10713615" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-12_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-12_o.jpg" data-mid="10832568" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/White-Diamonds-405_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/White-Diamonds-405_o.jpg" data-mid="10713645" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-12_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-12_o.jpg" data-mid="10832642" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-09_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-09_o.jpg" data-mid="10832627" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-16_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-16_o.jpg" data-mid="10832657" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/No-Shock-Just-Awe_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/No-Shock-Just-Awe_o.jpg" data-mid="10713639" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-01_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-01_o.jpg" data-mid="10832539" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-34_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-34_o.jpg" data-mid="10832715" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Get-By_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Get-By_o.jpg" data-mid="10713632" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/untitled-01_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/untitled-01_o.jpg" data-mid="10713643" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-27_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-27_o.jpg" data-mid="10832683" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-30_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-30_o.jpg" data-mid="10832696" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/A-Good-Man_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/A-Good-Man_o.jpg" data-mid="10713657" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-07_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-07_o.jpg" data-mid="10832560" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-13_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-13_o.jpg" data-mid="10832570" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-03_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-03_o.jpg" data-mid="10832616" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-04_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-04_o.jpg" data-mid="10832618" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Crawley_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Crawley_o.jpg" data-mid="10847480" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Black-Fraternization_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Black-Fraternization_o.jpg" data-mid="10713823" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-10_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-10_o.jpg" data-mid="10832634" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-18_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-18_o.jpg" data-mid="10832661" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-29_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-29_o.jpg" data-mid="10832693" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/x_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/x_o.jpg" data-mid="10713648" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-03_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-03_o.jpg" data-mid="10832547" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Table_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Table_o.jpg" data-mid="10714296" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/White-Diamonds-406_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/White-Diamonds-406_o.jpg" data-mid="10713646" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-21_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-21_o.jpg" data-mid="10832668" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-22_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-22_o.jpg" data-mid="10832670" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/You-Must-Learn_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/You-Must-Learn_o.jpg" data-mid="10713649" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Nobody-But-Me_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Nobody-But-Me_o.jpg" data-mid="10713636" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-23_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-23_o.jpg" data-mid="10832673" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-24_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-24_o.jpg" data-mid="10832674" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Polarit_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/Polarit_o.jpg" data-mid="10713642" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-06_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-06_o.jpg" data-mid="10832556" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-19_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-19_o.jpg" data-mid="10832664" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/untitled-02_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/untitled-02_o.jpg" data-mid="10713644" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-04_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-04_o.jpg" data-mid="10832550" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-05_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-05_o.jpg" data-mid="10832622" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-26_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-26_o.jpg" data-mid="10832679" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-08_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-08_o.jpg" data-mid="10832561" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-15_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-15_o.jpg" data-mid="10832652" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-28_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-28_o.jpg" data-mid="10832689" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-31_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-31_o.jpg" data-mid="10832699" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-09_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-09_o.jpg" data-mid="10832562" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-06_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-06_o.jpg" data-mid="10832623" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-07_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-07_o.jpg" data-mid="10832624" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-11_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-11_o.jpg" data-mid="10832566" border="0" align="left"/>{image 51}<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-17_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-17_o.jpg" data-mid="10832659" border="0" align="left"/>{image 57}<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-05_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/drawing-05_o.jpg" data-mid="10832552" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-25_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-25_o.jpg" data-mid="10832677" border="0" align="left"/>{image 69}{image 72}<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-36_800.jpg" width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/29888/773479/photo-36_o.jpg" data-mid="10832726" border="0" align="left"/> http://cargocollective.com/rmphoenix/Info http://cargocollective.com/rmphoenix/following/rmphoenix/Info Thu, 11 Nov 2010 07:37:39 +0000 R. M. Phoenix 363437 R. M. Phoenix Born in London, 1979 Lives & Works in North Wales rob@rm-phoenix.co.uk ( Bordel Tabernacle ) Solo Exhibitions 2011 Nobody’s Fault But [Mine] [Yours] [Ours] Mine. AND/OR Gallery, London Group Exhibitions 2012 Luciano Maggiore + R.M. Phoenix, Interno 4, Bologna, Italy The Dazzling Light Back, Interno4, Bologna, Italy Verfreundungseffekt, Heimat Museum, London The Photocopy Club, Beach Gallery, London It Is At It Was. Good Press Gallery, Glasgow 2011 The Family Show. Mono, Glasgow Crux - Dmitri Galitzine, R.M. Phoenix, James Trimmer. Slaughterhouse, London About Abstraction. Artagent Berlin, Chausseestraße 36, Berlin A Happy Life in the Mountains II. London (co-organiser) Let's Be Civil About This. AND/OR Gallery, London FoodFace Salon. Bussey Building, London A Happy Life in the Mountains I. ttt-werkstatttraum, Skalitzerstrasse 100, Hinterhof, Berlin, (co-organiser) Good Press! Soup Kitchen, Manchester Museums Anthology. Islington Mill, Salford Lists. Magnum Opus Gallery, Brighton 2010 Draw. Museo De La Ciudad De Mexico, Mexico City Education 1998-2001 Bath School of Art 1997-1998 Chelsea College of Art Publications 2012 The Dazzling Light Back Exhibition Catalogue Verfreundungseffekt Contributing writer It Is As It Was Exhibition catalogue 2011 Anchor & Drift Independently published monograph A Happy Life in the Mountains Self-published exhibition catalogue Museums Press Anthology Contributing artist Team Contributing artist Nobody’s Fault But [Mine] [Yours] [Ours] Mine. Self-published exhibition catalogue Fanzines Thames & Hudson. Featured small press publisher 2010 Langdon Olgar Assistant Editor Take Your Breath In When You Need It. And Let it Go When You Need To. Self-published photography book Arthur & Albert magazine Interview 2005-2010 Failedrockstar website. Editor & Interviewer 2003-2006 Failedrockstar Arts Journal. Founder & Editor Statement There’s self-reliance and a simple creativity in labour that I think is important. I like the experience of visually understanding something almost immediately, and then for this perception and comfort in knowledge to be undermined by uncertainties in the physical experience, making looking a bodily, self-aware activity. I am intrigued by John Keats' 'Negative Capability' where one is ‘capable of being in uncertainties', and Bertolt Brecht’s ‘Verfremdungseffekt’, a ‘making strange’, that deliberately disallows an involving emotional experience, therefore making a person more self-aware of their capacity for action. Using something that can be quite visually basic highlights the process and production of the work and the slight and subtle differences that can, deliberately and accidentally, exist between the surfaces and materials used. This highlights the significance of labour, and the products of labour, in one’s life, the importance of interacting bodily with materials, working them with one’s hands, and how the results of this can create a quiet acceptance and understanding of one’s place within the world. Writings & Interviews January 2012 / Interview for 'It Is As It Was' exhibition catalogue Attention to detail and accuracy seem to be very important in your work - there's never a line out of place! - is labour and focus something which you count into the artistic process? Labour is definitely something that plays a part in the artistic process. A picture isn't really the end point for me and it's the act of making that justifies itself and that leaves its own mark on the work that I consider important. This ties in with your impression of the role of detail and accuracy in the work, something which I almost actively work against. The sets of lines that may appear to be very definitely set in place are more of a structure, or a system, that in the process of being made shows up the inconsistencies and breakdowns in that act of creation and repetition. I'm not looking for them to be perfect, nor do I want to deliberately create imperfections, but I guess I'm more interested in these things just being made, to simply and almost un-beautifully, fulfill a function, than them being finessed to a degree of craftsmanship. I don't like to deny or hide the mistakes on the way to the finish. Recently for me labour has become a really important signifier of man's and woman's attempts to place themselves in the world, to be able to make something and say 'I made this' and for that to act as an outward proof of existence and worth, and as an act of self reliance. I've been really inspired by Donald Judd's furniture, making it himself when the need to furnish his home couldn't be met by others, and I think it's something that becomes more important in our world of consumerism. On the other hand, your lo-fi documentary style photography, which often carries similar motifs to your paper compositions, seem a more immediate way of presenting a similar aesthetic, can you tell us more about the juxtaposition of the two processes? I'm still trying to understand this relationship between these different mediums, how a photograph works alongside a painting, not just tied in aesthetically but as separate physical objects with different histories. I like the idea of presenting different works that aren't just individual standalone pieces, though they can act that way, but that as a group can be navigated through in different ways, I don't know, I quite like not understanding it, I just want to make sure that they're not random things shoehorned in together, that while there may not be sense there is some kind of internal logic. The photography has come to play a more important role in the last couple of months, moving to the countryside and then injuring my eye to the extent that I now have impaired vision. It's a way for me to make sense of and document my surroundings, surroundings that then play into the painting or sculpture that I make. I'm starting to see all the work I make as some aspect of documenting how one learns to make sense of one's existence within a physical and material place. You've recently made wooden furniture, something of a homage to Judd, is this something you intend to do more of? Were they made out of necessity or as art pieces? They came out of necessity, needing a chair and seeing Judd's and thinking 'I've got some wood, I can make something like that', I mean it's never as simple as that, I'm not a joiner, and I don't ever want to display any disrespect for the skill and hard work that goes into the incredible work that a furniture maker does, but I admire that Second World War 'make do and mend' mentality, if it works it's good. I put 4 pieces of wood together and can sit on it, that's good. That they then came to be shown alongside my other work just happened naturally. As art pieces they do reflect what's going on in my other work, though when they've been exhibited they have still had that utilitarian function. I've been thinking more about the relationship between vision and bodily experiencing the world and in turn artwork, and for the eyes to not always be the main way of experiencing what's going on, and the furniture has been an interesting way for me to understand this, almost as the other end of the spectrum from what a painting traditionally is. You are very restrained in your use of colour and your paintings are often made on exposed wood, what is your relationship to raw materials? A couple of years ago while making large abstract oil paintings I realised that I always liked and appreciated more the raw canvas stretched and then primed, than I did the final painting. This troubled me for a long time, and I felt that it meant I should just give up painting. It took a while for me to get to a stage where I could understand these preparatory stages as having their own meaning, that the support could actually be the painting. Raw materials are just beautiful, both natural wood and something like handmade cloth, they're so physical, and their properties are inherent within them as an object and can create a frisson and relationship between things and people that I find so interesting. ----- September 2011 / Interview with FAD Where did you study art? Did the school shape your approach to art making? I did a foundation year at Chelsea college in 1998, and then my degree in Bath straight after. Not at all, I was such a lost soul at university and there was such a long time between leaving those places and actually finding an approach to art making that works for me. Though the confidence I got from my tutor at Bath, Michael Simpson, has stayed with me. You currently work with artist collective Portable Isolation Unit, is it important to you to work collaboratively? Not especially, but it can be interesting and a welcome challenge. It’s something I like to try and do when someone else’s work excites or fascinates me. CRUX is an exhibition about shifting perception and knowledge, how does your work respond to this? I think the work presents a proposition of simplicity that then undermines an initially accepted perception, highlighting surface and material as well as subtleties and frailties in the systems of making. I’ve been interested in Bertolt Brecht’s ‘Verfremdungseffekt’, a dramaturgical device he used to distance the audience from a comfortable entertainment, with the intention of highlighting social ills so that the audience would reflect on them and be driven to act. I’m still unsure of how my work actually reflects this, but it’s one of the driving forces behind what I do. You work across many different mediums, including books and record covers, do you think it has become more common for artists not to limit themselves to one? I don’t think it’s any more or less common than ever before. Your work has become increasingly stripped back over the past year, is this a movement towards purity of form? What has driven this? Working previously in a more gestural and expressionistic way made me unhealthily anxious, and I found it difficult to acknowledge an end point in my work, there was never any reason to stop working on a painting. I don’t see it as anything to do with purity though, maybe more like clarity. You’ve recently exhibited in Mexico – how does the art world differ there? Did you feel it was a radically new audience for your work? I have no idea. I was put in touch with the artist D*Face who had been asked to include some work from artists he liked in a drawing exhibition. I gave him a drawing and it got posted to the museum in Mexico. Do you feel like there is a coherent movement or group of artists emerging in London the moment? Not really. As ever there’s some interesting work, some work I strongly identify with, made by interesting artists that can end up in the pub together, and lots and lots of crap. Do you think the arts cuts will impact on young people’s ability to pursue careers as artists? Sure but I think it’s more of a worry how much the cuts are impacting on young people and people with disabilities just trying to have an education and a decent way of life. Being an artist is not a viable career, it’s a commitment to something that means something, with or without the cuts. I think what has more of a negative impact is the impossibly ridiculous living costs of London and leaving school with the lack of anything resembling a trade or something that can provide one with an income and a useful contribution to the soul and to society. What projects are you working on beyond CRUX? I have a book coming out with Museums Press, called ‘Anchor & Drift’, and have just had a print collection release in the US with Little Paper Planes. And in October I’m moving with my girlfriend to a small village in the hills of North Wales to give myself more time to make work ----- September 2011 / Interview with Maggie Haas for Little Paper Planes R. M. Phoenix explores that act of making across a variety of media, from photos to zines to paintings. Labor intensive drawings mix with serendipitous-feeling photos, all making a case for the importance of accidental details, and our attention to them. MH: Your work covers a broad range, from paintings to books to photographs and publishing projects, and the imagery varies too. Do you have a line of continuity in your work, formally or conceptually, that grounds you? RP: I sometimes wonder if the only thing connecting everything I do is the fact that I make it, and I suppose that’s true, that making is the underlying factor in everything I do. Making is how I feel I best interact with the world, as though these things I make are a middle point between me and everything else. I’ve recently become more interested in the significance of labor and the products of labor in one’s life, the importance of interacting bodily with materials, working them with one’s hands, and how the results of this can create a quiet acceptance and understanding of one’s place within the world. For me, working is a continual process of exploration, and sometimes I chance upon something that can sustain me and my work for a long time, and sometimes I will make one painting that I love, but that doesn’t suggest any forward movement and so it gets left, still a significant part of what I do and relevant to other work but somewhat at odds to everything else. And time is a major factor in this, too; I simply don’t have enough time and have to get all my ideas out of my head so as not to forget them. I’d like more time to explore some things more deeply, though I really don’t want to confine myself to a tight visual identity that I can’t break out of without causing upset. MH: Who are some of your influences? I could imagine a range from Stan Brackhage to Agnes Martin to contemporary street photography. How about contemporary favorites of yours, or peers who influence you? RP: Agnes Martin definitely, though perhaps her ideas and her life story more than her paintings. I’ve been really excited by the work of R.H. Quaytman in recent months, and Fergus Feehily’s exhibition at Stuart Shave/Modern Art last month really blew me away. I love Hedi Slimane’s photography, and my old friend Andreas Laszlo Konrath is putting some amazing work out there currently. My brother Rich plays in a couple of bands, Sauna Youth & Tense Men and the ideas he writes about are continually fascinating and intelligent and his drawings are incredible. David Thorpe, Simon Callery, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Wade Guyton, Tauba Auerbach, Bianca Brunner, Rowena Hughes, Tomas Downes, James Wright & Sergej Jensen are a few artists whose work & ideas I find really interesting & exciting. I’ve recently also been heavily influenced by people making furniture, such as Donald Judd, Roy McMakin, Martino Gamper & Rolu, and I read a lot of blogs, special favorites being http://propertyofparkdale.tumblr.com/ & http://youhavebeenheresometime.blogspot.com/ and I do enjoy Apartamento magazine. MH: You mention the importance of labor in your artist statement. Can you talk more about it? Your work is very meticulous, but often also quite spare, so labor seems both controlled and also slightly invisible. RP: I think sometimes the act of labor in my paintings can be quite restrained and quiet, and the paintings don’t always translate well in photographs. And I think the work is only meticulous to a point. I’m not big on finicky details, my drawings are perhaps the most detailed work I do, and those are more about the variances of repetition and the act of drawing a line and another one, etc., not mindlessly, but labor as just doing something, when confronted by nothing, until something happens or starts to make some kind of sense. I’m much more about just getting something done than getting it done to the highest level of craftsmanship. In my paintings there are visible saw marks, corners aren’t square, edges are uneven, the paint is slightly chipped in places. This interests me more than the slickness of some minimalism. I guess it comes down to what I identify in the furniture making of Donald Judd. When he moved to West Texas he didn’t have any furniture and there wasn’t any to be bought and so he got some wood from the lumber yard and made himself and his family some simple furniture. There’s a self-reliance and a simple creativity in labor that I think is important. MH: What’s your relationship to patterns and repetition? RP: I like the simplicity of patterns and repetition, and their potential for disrupting perception. I like the experience of visually understanding something almost immediately, and then for this understanding and comfort in knowledge to be undermined with uncertainties and breakdowns in the system. I think that using something that can be quite basic visually, something that relies on a repeated motif across a single painting or across a whole body of work, highlights the process and production of the work and the slight and subtle differences that can, deliberately and accidentally, exist between the surfaces and materials used, between wood that is sanded or waxed, canvas that is stained, painted or raw, primer that is one layer or five layers thick, sanded or not, shiny or matt. These things I find infinitely more interesting than making a picture. MH: Can you tell me about about the way Portable Isolation Unit, your loose group with three other artists, works? I was interested in the show that involved a look at Dick Proenneke, someone who I’ve found fascinates artists and non-artists alike. Do you guys have anything new planned? RP: Portable Isolation Unit is almost like a support group. Anna Hughes and I met by chance about six months ago in London and while our work is very different we found we were working from some similar ideas. We exchanged emails and references and got talking about working together in some way, taking advantage of the fact that she lives and works in Berlin while I’m here in London. Anna had been talking with her friend Clemence Grieco about a group exhibition and I got in touch with my friend Wesley Goatley. We wanted the exhibition to dictate itself, to grow out of discussions around our works and ideas, instead of just putting different work together in a room with no thought to the exhibition as a composed and considered proposal itself. We spent many hours daily emailing each other back and forth, and through this certain themes continued to appear, specifically ideas around solitude and the creative impulse. Just before this a customer in one of the shops I work in had been in looking for books on self made vernacular housing and mentioned Dick Proenneke to me. I brought him up in our conversations as an example of the proactive choice to engage with solitude and construct a way of living through one’s own actions. When we came to refine our ideas for an exhibition his story stood out as a reference point that led to many of the other ideas we had discussed. We’ve now put on two exhibitions, in Berlin in June, and London at the beginning of September, and published a catalogue, all under the title ‘A Happy Life in the Mountains.’ It’s been exhausting, and I’m now ill from all the work that went into the London exhibition, but it’s been incredibly inspiring and instructive, and without a doubt has had a momentous impact on my work and who I am, which I know goes for the others too. We don’t have anything new planned as yet. There are possibilities for exhibitions in Europe and Canada, but for the moment I think we would like to have a beer together in my garden and reflect on what we’ve done. MH: What are your upcoming personal projects or zines? RP: I have a book coming out with Museums Press later this month, called ‘Anchor & Drift’, which I’m really excited about, and a three person show in London in October, with Dmitri Galitzine & James Trimmer. And then I’m taking some time out for the rest of the year and moving to my girlfriends caravan in a remote valley in Wales, I can’t wait, I need some time out from the stress and pressure that is London and dull part-time retail jobs, and then we shall see, next year will look after itself. ----- August 2011 / "Anchor & Drift" published by Museums Press Making is a way to navigate through the doubt and uncertainty. Sawing wood, stretching canvas, sanding primer; the actions of my hands learning a material and enacting a will in the world. This labour of making is carried out for its own purpose, its own excuse, for a loss of self that can happen, and the knowledge of self that can result. The outward signs of this work are the signs of life, a desire to take part, to be of use in the world, through obvious utility, a conscious uselessness, an unknown hope. The act fuels the intellect, in turn fuelling the act, the problem solving fuelling new problem making. I find it difficult placing myself in a world that has other people in it, or I find it difficult placing other people in a world that is mine. People, and the world we inhabit, are individual transitional objects, changing, never fully known. Once an inner world is thought to be known there is a whole new space it can exist in that can show it in a different light. This uncertain space is a place of curiosity. The studio provides a space, a space to move in, in solitude, to make choices, discoveries, mistakes, repeatedly, with only my fear, judgement and faith. The photograph acknowledges a personal comprehension of my surroundings, views that have been chosen, sorted and related. Drawing is a single act repeated, line followed by line. Objects are made that can then be anti-objects, not separately themselves but bridging between architectural space, through nature, through experience, light, material, through the eye, the body, thought. An initially simple visual cue can alert the eye, but it’s not alone, the work relates bodily to your relationship to everything. Through these a personal philosophy is slowly written. This is in perpetual beta, it is open, there is no end point, there is continually a tweaking and fine-tuning, the lines of this philosophy re-written and re-written, altered, misunderstood, changed; new information, perception and awareness considered. Making provides an anchor, and within making an anchor is needed. Outwardly this can be an identity, inwardly it can be something to be returned to, rested upon. From this point it is possible then to drift, far and wide. The anchor should not become a cage and the drift should not become a loss. In the studio, walking around in the world, I am trying to understand what it is that anchors me, to my work, and my work to me, without restriction, without closing down, allowing the choice of self-control, while drifting around the same place or through to something new. ----- October 2010 / "Verfremdungseffekt in Abstract Painting" for Verfreundungseffekt magazine Playwright Bertolt Brecht devised his theory of Verfremdungseffekt as a way of challenging the audiences to his plays. He wanted to move away from theatre as a passive escapism and instead, through his plays, comment on political and social realities in such a way that audiences would be forced to question the situations presented to them and through this be aroused to action. He wanted them to face the world and then try to change it. This idea, and this belief in the power of art, has recently had a significant effect on my own practice as an abstract painter. Verfremdungseffekt is essentially a ‘making strange’, a deliberate act of alienation, detaching the audience from the action happening in front of them and disallowing an involving emotional experience that wears down their capacity for action. Through the painted mark, describing line, gesture and space, I have begun to attempt something similar; making paintings that confront the viewer with a disruption to their visual pleasure, alternately pushing away and drawing in their gaze, resulting in a disjointed self-awareness. The not unwelcome limitations of abstract painting mean that, unlike the plays of Brecht, there is no obvious narrative with which to describe political, social or historical events. So, instead of specifics my subject is a combination of the universal and the individual. Where Brecht wanted Verfremdungseffekt to lead “the audience to be a consciously critical observer” of the characters and action in his plays, my hope is that, through a reconfiguration of this theatrical device, my paintings and the awareness they create will encourage reflection and critical judgement on the inner and outer worlds of the viewer, disrupting apathy and empowering action. Through a quiet disturbance of the comfortable consumption of imagery and sensation Verfremdungseffekt represents, through Art, both responsibility and possibility. The responsibility we have to act and the possibility that these actions can indeed change the world. ----- August 2010 / Interview with Will Exley in Arthur & Albert magazine Illustrator, Will Exley, and Artist, Rob Phoenix, first met through mutual friends while living in Brighton. They recently got together for tea and a chat, as the sun shone on, near their studios in London. Rob: We have very different studio spaces, what do you do in your studio? Will: I spend a lot of time sending emails! My work is Illustration more than Art; I find I work a lot better with something to do, I’m not so good with coming up with endeavours I issue myself, and so I have to spend a lot of time actually getting work. I prefer to have something to grasp, whether it be a record sleeve or a t-shirt or something else. I like having that starting point; it gives it a certain sense of what it could be to be a successful image at the end. R Is that to do with security? I think one of the difficult things I find in painting is not having an inclination of an end point. There’s always that question; ‘Is it finished?’ I’ll think it’s finished and then realise that it’s not finished. Also, having recently gone through a period of change in my work, my perception of what’s a finished painting has changed massively. What were finished paintings are now just bad paintings. W That’s a pretty nebulous thing to try to grapple with. R That can become part of the work, making paintings about making a painting. W For me, it’s definitely to do with security. I often feel when looking at other people’s work that I’m obviously looking at finished work only because it’s someone else’s R Because someone else has said it’s finished. My own work never looks like a finished painting, not in the same way that other peoples work can look like a finished painting. W There must be times when you know it’s done. R Yeah, it does happen, I have finished paintings! That’s exciting when you look at a painting in a different way or you change something in the work that causes you to see it in a whole new way. That’s a really exciting moment, things come in to alignment. It makes sense. W You can wonder too much about when things will come in to alignment. I always think exasperation’s quite a good finisher. When you’ve got a deadline, there’s a point where you think; ‘There’s no more I can do on this’, and you let go a lot more easily. R Do you have to let go of work you’re not completely happy with? W Not often. Sometimes a week later I’ll realise that was totally the wrong way to do it. I’m working on ideas and concepts to start with which then get approved and I then have to work on the final image. Each of these sections has its weigh points; it does feel like the longer I do it the better I get at recognising those weigh points. In front of the computer I can get quite specific, I’ve drawn this section; now’s the time to put in the black blotchy bits, now’s the time to put in the little dashes, now’s the time to put in the weird photocopy effect. R Haha! Yeah, I sometimes have the same thing while painting; now it’s time for the flat colour, now for the slightly messy, slightly hard-edged lines, now for the gestural painterly marks. W How you guide your way through, it’s like a second language. R You have quite a particular style to your work. W Style’s a tricky one. Up until recently I would have said I didn’t have a style. But I’m also aware that that’s perhaps down to being the person making it, it can be hard to see. It’s only recently I now try and have a sense of consistency. Comics are my main source of inspiration and in my head I’m happy if I’ve managed to combine something cartoon-like with something with a realistic bent to it, that’s what I’m going for in my head. R Sure, I find as well that my work can often be trying to bring together different, sometimes opposing, visual ideas. W Yes, definitely. R I guess we both have to acknowledge and deal with a massive visual history that precedes what we’re doing. That’s something we have to work alongside or maybe fight against, whilst also not treading on other artists toes. W Of course, so much has gone before and it’s important to take what that inspires and treat that with as much care as you would anything else. Those influences are as important as whatever impulse we have that would make us create something that is not inspired by our influences. ----- December 2009 / Interview with Lindsay Alexander Corstorphine LAC: When did you first become aware of art and the desire to become an artist? RMP: I think I fell into it. I wasn’t a child that drew a lot. I always wanted to be a TV cameraman when I was younger. I have vivid memories of drawing – a drawing of a boat when I was 10 or 11, and then nothing much else, just choosing art at A-Level, because that was the only thing I was doing well at. It was only when I started doing really well at my art a-level that I decided to put more passion into it, rather than it being an original passion in the first place. So it just stemmed from school. So did you then go to art college? Yeah. I did 3 a-levels at school – art, maths and physics. I got kicked off my physics course. I just stopped going, my dad got called into the school and they said I would have to pay for my a-level exam, but by this time I had got on to the foundation at Chelsea. It was there at Chelsea that I really grew an awareness of art and what I was possibly getting involved in. I’ve always been a very visual person, from a young age. I tried to understand things around me in a visual way. So there was that difference between having a pencil and paper and drawing and then going to art college and realising there’s this whole world of painting and history there. And then from there, going to my degree and having 3 years of wondering how on earth to make an impression, to make a stand in amongst this ‘new world.’ Your brother paints as well. Do you feel a sense of competition with him? No, well, kind of, Rich, my brother, and I have spoken about this quite a bit. It stops me from getting lazy. Being so close to someone with the passion and skill for painting my brother has is great, it keeps me wanting to get better, I guess that’s a sense of competition. But we paint differently, and have a different focus to each other, although it’s been very much a co-operative learning process, we really feed off each other’s work. Music has been a big part of mine and my brother’s lives, but he was always naturally much more adept at music than me. Music never caught me in the same way that it caught him. Whereas I think Art, and painting, caught me in a different way. We’ve both been through periods where we’ve been known as the other person’s brother, been in their shadow a bit, but as annoying as that can get it never ever comes down to being bitter about the other person’s ability or success. He’s probably my biggest inspiration. Have you ever been disillusioned by art? Constantly! Well, not constantly. It’s maybe the reason it’s taken me so long to make this commitment. I turned 30, moved to London and made this full commitment to painting. I’ve tried different careers before, just because its taken a massive amount of personal faith in myself and in my ability, to really embrace it because there are so many people out there doing the same thing, doing it a lot better than I am and its taken me a while to really understand whether what I’m doing is any good and also that fear of ‘can I risk committing to this’ because it could take years and years. There are massive peaks and massive troughs. There are days where I think, “what am I doing, I’ve made a massive mistake here, I should’ve done a maths degree instead” and then there’s days where I can’t imagine doing anything else. But yeah, there’s still disillusionment and insecurity about it. Do you make a living from art and is money important to you? Money is important yeah. It’s got nothing to do with being commercial, it’s got do with the one thing I want to do is make art and unfortunately I need money to be able to do that. Especially because I’ve chosen painting, I have to buy paints, canvas, stretchers and paintbrushes and pay for a studio and that’s expensive. I need to get myself in a position where I can keep doing what I want to do. No, I don’t make a living off my art. I’ve always had to have a part-time job to pay for a studio and pay for the materials to do it. That’s kind of tied in with the disillusionment because I’ve gone through periods of giving up just because of the financial burden of struggling away at something that could be a ridiculous enterprise. It can get on top of you. At the moment I’ve been very lucky that I don’t have to pay rent, because I’m a live-in carer, I’ve been getting jobseekers allowance that pays for my studio and I start a new job next week, which will then pay for my studio and materials. I’ve been very lucky- my friends have given me canvas and paints – so the ideal is to start making money. I’ve got friends who are deemed ‘successful’ but have part-time jobs and really have to tighten the purse strings to make anything of it. How would you define your style of painting, who’s inspiring you currently? A very simple list would be – Julie Mehretu, Cy Twombly, Amy Sillman, Bridget Riley, Cecily Brown, Sean Scully, Katy Moran, Adrian Ghenie, I really could go on and on. There are different parts of different artists that I admire. Agnes Martin’s writings and thoughts on arts relationship to people, and Sean Scullys as well, is really inspiring. With regards to my own work, I’m still trying to work out what I’m doing. It’s interesting having concentrated studio practice for the last 6 months, looking at the first and last paintings I’ve made and realising there’s a huge growth process. To use a music analogy; its like I’m still in band practice in my parents garage and still discovering new bands: I think I know what I’m playing and then one day discovering Minor Threat (hugely influential American Hardcore Punk band) and going ‘Oh my God, this changes everything!” It’s like you’ve then got a framework to hang everything on? Yeah. Well, I know massively what I don’t want to be doing. Abstract painting is what I want to do. I’m very interested in war and violence and our personal responsibility and I feel very conscious that I don’t want to just make pretty pictures. I believe in beauty but there has to be a human connection to it. So it’s tying in the conceptual ideas along with actually how it looks. It’s also this big process of learning how to use my instrument; learning how oil paint works. So trying to bring all these different things together in a ‘cohesive strain.’ So, talking about cohesiveness, when you start a new painting are you thinking about the last few you’ve done before or are you starting afresh? I can start off thinking about the previous painting either because it’s worked really well and I want to do it again but do it slightly better, or because its opened up alternative ideas so I want to try this different thing that it’s suggested. But, at the moment each painting ends up going down a completely different route, because I don’t have a fully developed style and because there’s no end product in mind. I’ll do a painting and be really pleased with it, and start another one thinking about how that one worked and what didn’t, and I just find that through the actions one makes, unless you do a straight copy, it takes on a life of its own which then throws up more new ideas. I think maybe the more paintings I do, the narrower in scope they’ll become, not in a bad way, but more in that I’ll have a better idea of what works and what doesn’t. They’re all definitely interconnected, but very separate. I think. (laughs) Have you ever exhibited? Yeah. I’ve exhibited in Brighton and London and exhibited some photography in Australia when I was out there. I was part of a street art collective for a while in Brighton and we did some exhibitions – in London and in Amsterdam. What was the name of the collective? Grafik Warfare. Yeah! Nice. It was really funny because we’d go out in the evenings, hitting up walls or whatever, I don’t know. They’d have their spraycans and stencils and I’d be there with a bag of acrylic paints. I’d try to paint gestural abstraction on the walls whilst they were spraypainting stencils. It really didn’t work at all; it was a dreadful mess. (laughs). I hung out with them all once in London and I was totally non-plussed with the whole graffiti thing, this guy came up to me and said ‘are you a writer’ – as in a graffiti writer, I didn’t know what he was talking about and I said ‘Kind of yeah… I’ve done some poetry and a couple of short stories but nothing much’ and he looked at me like ‘what the fuck are you talking about?’ So do you think if you hadn’t gone to art school you’d still be painting? Yeah. I did my art foundation after my a-levels, which was because I had no clear idea what I wanted to do. It was a really difficult year. I just wanted to be a student, I wasn’t that interested in being an artist – on my degree I basically spent 3 years getting pissed (laughs). It’s weird; I’ve spent a long time trying not to be an artist, trying not to paint. Kind of denying it almost? Yeah. Really kind of going ‘God, no I can’t do this, it’s too hard’. I was just wimping out basically, being a bit of a pussy. It was recently when I started a career as a social worker, that I realised very quickly I didn’t want to be a social worker and what I actually wanted to do was paint, or be involved in art somehow. I think I would’ve got to this point even if I hadn’t gone to art college. So I don’t know if art college played a big part in me being an artist, I’ve learnt more off my own back since leaving my degree. I think it perhaps did fan that early spark though, made me aware of the wider world of Art, and that maybe it was just the wrong time in my life. I wasn’t very good to be honest, and I didn’t really understand why or what I was painting. There has to be a reason, a passion, I think in some ways I needed to exhaust all other possibilities and all other possible avenues before I decided well.. Like self-realisation almost? You get to a point where you can’t deny it any longer. I could’ve probably made a career elsewhere. It’s funny, I remember one of the times I gave up art, my idea was to start a career in youth work or social work and I actually had a ten-year plan. My thinking was that I’d do that, reach 40 or 50, retire and be able to afford a shed in my back garden to paint in. But, I figured ‘why wait until I’m 40 or 50?’ I recently read something that said life’s really tough whatever you do so you might as well follow your heart and do what’s right. I’m still not sure if I’m any good or not, I still could be one of those people you see on x-factor going ‘I should be here Simon Cowell, I’m a great singer, you don’t know what you’re talking about!’ but they’re really shit and everyone knows it except them. I could be one of those people but I don’t know what else to do to be honest (laughs) it feels right. I have enough self-belief and arrogance right now, that it’s what I want to do. And I love it, I love being in the studio, I’m happier now than anytime I’ve ever done anything else. Do you have total confidence in your ability? Does it ever waiver? Yeah. I do think I’m a good artist. I don’t think I’m shit. I think I’m a good painter. I think I’ve got something. If I truly believed that I wasn’t any good, if I truly believed that I couldn’t see myself, not necessarily making it as an artist, but making it something that was worthwhile in my life, then I wouldn’t continue to do it. Whether I will become an internationally renowned, recognised artist, whether I will make a living out of it, I don’t know. In my life, the best way that I have of creating something meaningful is through painting. I believe that, and so that’s why I continue to do it. How do you define success? Is it the fact you’re able to continue painting? In some ways, yeah, I’m successful right now. I speak to some people who are impressed that I’m able to do what I’m doing and some people think it’s a bit odd to be 30 and have a shitty part time job. They don’t understand that I’m not exhibiting not because I’m shit, but because I’m just not exhibiting. Success is totally relative. People can have this idea that once you reach a certain stage, once you start a career, once you fall in love, once you get married, once you have children, that everything’s going to be fine and life’s going to be great. It doesn’t work like that. I may get represented by a gallery and have a solo show, sell all my work but I don’t see that will suddenly make life okay. I like my life at the moment, I’m really happy, things are working out – so I’m successful. If I die tomorrow, I’ve had a certain amount of success. Not everyone knows who I am, but then look at Damien Hirst. He’s probably the most ‘successful’ and well known artist in the history of British art but his talent is constantly questioned. His recent attempt to actually be the artist he really wants to be has been absolutely panned by every single critic. He can’t feel that great about himself. How would he quantify success right now? His latest show isn’t critically successful but it still sold out and he’s massively successful financially. Do you want to talk about Failedrockstar? The name initially came from when I was a drunken idiot at university. A friend of mine said I acted like a rockstar but I wasn’t one, and called me a failed rock star and that stuck in my head. A year after university, I went to Australia in a bid to find myself and came back and realised that nothing had changed. I’d had a fun time but was still unsure of what I was doing. I got a job near my parents’ in a photolab/copyshop so I had access to a photocopier and was able to print my own photos. It was one of many shit jobs, countless shit jobs. It was through my brother’s involvement in punk rock that I was really aware of zines. So I took a load of my photos from my recent trip to Australia and made some copies of this zine of all these photos, just for my friends who I’d met whilst travelling. Just photocopied and stapled together because I had access to the equipment to make a proper booklet. Did you pay for it? (Proudly) No! Failedrockstar has only survived on me not paying for things. I think it was just through pure boredom, just the feeling that I had to do something. I wasn’t able to paint at the time, so I made this zine of all this work I had – paintings, drawings and photos. I’ve always been really interested in books, so wanted to make this nice package. I made the first one, made 100 copies, spray painted a manilla envelope for the cover, made some badges and some stickers. My brother sold it on tour. I got quite a positive response. From various places I knew a few creative people so thought, ‘It seems a shame that we’re all friends but not doing anything together.’ That became the second issue where I got everyone to do some work and put it into a zine again. Again, my brother sold it on tour around the UK on the merchandise stand. I think that was almost equivalent to what you can do with the internet now– I mean, it existed then but it wasn’t what it is today. There wasn’t blogs, and I didn’t know how to make a website. It was just free distribution basically, I didn’t make any money from it but it got the zine out to corners of the UK that otherwise I would have no access to. It culminated in the fourth issue, which happened in Brighton in 2005. By this time, issue 4 had grown, it sold out twice in Tate Modern. I’d got about 40 artists and writers involved. I’d met loads of new artists in Brighton and started having the balls to email people I didn’t know. I was working at a copy shop and there was one evening where I had to work late night and secretly ran through 1000 colour copies on heavy stock paper. Unfortunately the copy shop found out but eventually I ended up paying a fraction of what the printing was worth. It wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Then, I started organising issue 5 but it all just became about being an admin guy, it became about editing a magazine, dealing with artists – which can be a nightmare. It was no longer fun so I kind of put it to one side. At the time of the fourth issue, I started interviewing some of the artists, for the same reason as this interview. I was becoming more interested in being an artist myself but was clueless as to how to go about it. So it was this idea to build up this written enquiry into what makes people pursue this creative ideal, the belief in their creativity. So now the name, Failedrockstar, represents the idea that it’s better to try and fail than to never try at all. It’s about not not doing something because you’re too scared that you might fail. It’s a bit slap-dash – I don’t want it to be a regularly updated magazine. It’s an online archive of interviews with people that are committing their lives to their creativity in spite of the possibility of failure. My hope is that through the interviews other people will get some sort of inspiration, some sort of knowledge, some sort of awareness of what it is they’re getting involved in. Also, artists fascinate me. I love reading artist and writer’s biographies. The toll it takes on life. I get so scared/bored of the idea that you go to school, you get your degree, you get your career, you get your wife, you get your kids and then you die. The idea of people trying achieve something bigger, something more profound and meaningful. I’m intrigued as to how that fits in with everyday life. The idea of being an artist and being creative encompasses everything in your life, and everything you believe in – it IS your life? It’s also confronting that; it can be sometimes quite a romantic view. You read about writers like Richard Yates and Patricia Highsmith – they chose their writing over having an easy life. I’ve interviewed artists, creative people, and while it is their life, it doesn’t stop them from having a happy normal life – like a businessman does, you know? It’s very easy to get caught up in the myth of the starving artist in the garret that has to drink to get by and finds it very difficult to interact with people. Which as a stereotype does exist for a reason, but it isn’t necessarily a reality for everyone. It’s also this idea that Art is a magic thing where you don’t want to look behind the veil. Yes, there are geniuses, Francis Bacon, Picasso, but there’s also those people who get up every day, put in the hard work and make it happen. You don’t need to be a genius to do it. Would you say you make art to deal with life? Yeah, in a way. I also make it in the hope that it will affect others dealing with life. Would you want Failedrockstar to become a bigger concern? I don’t think so, no. I want to be a painter, that’s where my heart lies. I’m not interested in being a publisher or an editor or a journalist. I’m merely a painter that’s interested in other things. When these things become a bit too big, they lose the initial appeal that they had. I’m interested in what artists have to say in the content, but not so interested in how to get that content. I’m more interested in reading the interview, than all the arrangement and aftermath of the interview. It’s opened up opportunities and avenues that wouldn’t have existed otherwise, but then I think that’s as much to do with making something happen. Even if it doesn’t become something like Fecal Face, or Arkitip, or whatever, that wasn’t my initial intention. It was borne out of curiosity. Its not so much that I want to make a magazine or art website, I just had questions and this sense of restlessness. One of the things that my painting is about is ‘How do you physically create your existence?’ Validating your existence. You try and find any way possible to make existence make sense. Being in love can be a fantastic thing, and then you read about atrocities in Rwanda or what’s going on in Afghanistan and you think ‘How can this exist and what’s my relationship to it?’ When you’re young everyone tells you what to do, or you leave university and think ‘What the fuck do I do now’, how do you then make existence make sense? Not in a higher, religious way, but purely in a day-to-day reason for getting out of bed – this is why I’m breathing, this is why my genes are propagating. So, you make friends, paint a painting, start a band, help others, do maths or whatever. Do you work in other mediums, other than painting? Yes. I take a lot photographs. I also draw – but my drawing is completely unrelated to my painting. I work with charcoal, pencil, pen and ink. I’ve also done collage, a bit of sculpture, I like the idea of making films and I’m interested in bookbinding and making stuff out of paper as well. I think half of it is the natural creative urge that everyone has. Why painting? I don’t know. It’s not a choice. I didn’t sit down and decide ‘…painting, sculpture…hmm?’ It’s what feels right. I like other art forms and, you know, I draw and play the guitar a bit but painting, that’s when I’m good. R. M. Phoenix Born in London, 1979 Lives & Works in North Wales rob@rm-phoenix.co.uk ( Bordel Tabernacle ) Solo Exhibitions 2011 Nobody’s Fault But [Mine]...