One week to go and renowned Sculptural Artist Andrew Logan is coming to our studio.
From his early fame in the 1960s among London’s fashionable crowd, Andrew has become an influential artist of international stature, with exhibitions, and sculptures to be seen as far afield as the American Museum of Visionary Art in Baltimore, Delhi International Airport (see below) and The Glass Museum in Monterey, Mexico.
Andrew Logan’s Guardian Angels of India welcomes visitors to Mumbai. Photo courtesy GVK Mumbai International Airport.
In the 60s there were hardly any clubs or artists here in London but there was a fantastic scene and London really was swinging. In the early 70s everyone went over to New York. I remember arriving at a gallery there with a brochure with me smiling all over it, only to be told that smiling was ‘out’ that year. After having done an installation on Biba’s roof Garden in London, I approached friend Andy Warhol in NYC with the idea of wrapping a rose around the empire state building. Warhol, forever the business man, promptly saw the money making opportunity in it saying I should create editions of it whereas I only saw the vision and just wanted to do it.
A lot of us started returning to London in ’75 and a fantastic scene soon flourished. There still weren’t many artists knocking about but The Rocky Horror Show was happening and I’d already staged two Alternative Miss Worlds. My studio at the time was used by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood to stage the notorious ‘Valentine’s Ball’ in 1976 where the Sex Pistols first came to light.
Andrew Logan in The Londonist 2010
Belonging to a unique school of English eccentrics, Andrew challenges convention, mixed media and plays with our artistic values.
Andrew will spend two days working with us, offering an insight into his world – joy, exuberance, transformation, and into the methods and techniques he uses. The workshops will widen the horizons of the creative team of members, staff and volunteers , adding to the portfolio of skills and taking Designs in Mind to another level in terms of artistic output.
The impact on members’ confidence and self-esteem, by working with an artist of such repute will prove to be invaluable as experienced with other visiting professional artists the past. And, for the organisation as a whole which has ambitious plans for the future, the impact on the quality and range of artistic output and the potential growth in financial income will be significant.
The power of designing and making in both a collective and individual way is considered by members to be very beneficial in living with complex and enduring mental health difficulties and challenge the widely held perception of low expectations of work carried out by such groups.
“the pride and sense of achievement expressed by members as their work is installed in the public domain or is being purchased purely on the merit of the design and quality of the product cannot be underestimated… people don’t just buy from us because we are ‘a good cause’.”
Kath Diggens
The workshops are being funded by Arts Council England- part of a programme of company development at Designs in Mind.
“The mirror of the universe has been my life for thirty years. It has an energy like no other material.
The humble grain of sand transforms to glamorous glass.
I have played with mirror to create monuments, mobiles, portraits, wall pieces and jewellery.
My ‘Artistic Adventure’ is to create a world of ‘Magic Moments’.”
ANDREW LOGAN