You Wouldn't Airtag A Jumper

'You Wouldn't Airtag a Jumper' was my first solo show, put on at Phoenix Art Space as a culmination and a 'round-up' of my year there as the Cass Art x Phoenix studio award winner 2023.

This page shows install shots of the show, an explanation for the concept and reasons for putting on this show, a closer look at the commissioned artwork and finally my writings throughout the process.

It was a presentation of my embroidery work on sweatshirts accompanied by commissioned artwork of the travels of two of the jumpers' journeys. The knowledge of this 'travel' was made possible by inserting Apple AirTag trackers into them and putting the jumpers into public charity donation containers.

Alongside many standard A4 colour print outs, blue-tacked to the walls or positioned on the floor, It consisted of around 100 jumpers spilling out across an armchair, a beanbag and an office chair. The desired starting point of the exhibition had the 2 'cut-outs' from the jumpers attached to the wall. These act as collectibles, sealed in a trading card case. They are the one tangible part of the jumper, whereas the rest of it has since travelled across the world. Next to these collectibles, I had a brief summary of the concept, counteracting or possibly bypassing my 4,000 words worth of writing or 'rambling', splurting out my thoughts about the exhibition and the idea. The images then looped around the room in chronological order, every repeated print representing a day it had spent in that location. These images were made by Artists on Fiverr. I haggled and sent 16 different artists of varying styles a different google maps screenshot of a known or registered location from the jumpers journey. I paid no more than £4.50 to the artist and accepted what I was given.

On this page I have included a scan of the 'cut-outs', all the writing I had accompanying the artwork, install shots (more are waiting to be edited and sent) and the commissioned artworks along with their original export names.

Blue zipped

I embroidered this jumper with an image of a painting I had made, and the painting derived from a Ipad drawing. iPad > Canvas > Jumper. This particular jumper had an internal zip on the waist hem, this was done to encourage the removal of the tag and the note. When doing this, I had in mind the integrity of the jumper - no ripping or unpicking needed to find out what this thing in the jumper is. It was also to allow the eventual owner of the jumper to find the note and potentially get in contact with me. I was worried about the possibility of this also making it easier for warehouse workers and sorters to dispose of. As this exhibition demonstrates, this was not a problem. This particular jumper started it's journey by being put into a charity donation bin in Brighton, actually just a 4 minute walk from my studio.

iPad Drawing

Oil painting on canvas

Embroidered Jumper

The 'cut-out' or 'collectible' from the jumper in question

The Journey, depicted by Fiverr artists

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This Jumper has been at it's last known location (in Germany) for the last month or so. I suspect this is not the end of it's journey and it will pop up across the world one of the next times I check up on it. It's had nice a nice vacation so far, starting in England and up to Scotland, then driving through to Poland Via truckstops in Netherlands and Germany and then turned back to Germany to be stored (I assume) at it's current location.

F1 Pizzaiolo

The 'cut-out' or 'collectible' from the jumper in question

This Jumper was from my first ever 'series', It was drawn and painted on and very simply sewn together with a white collar added. One half of the design derived from an F1 bubblegum packet from the book 'Wrappers Delight' and the other half, an improvised design influenced by the stripes and style of Pizzaiolo workwear I was surrounded by whilst working at Very Italian Pizza in Brighton, with the head Pizzaiolo Luciano in mind. I picked this one because it would generally be considered low quality. This meant it was less consequential for me to 'dispose' of it and I wanted to see whether this standard of jumper would be accepted and where it would be deemed good enough to go. Again, the Airtag was sealed into the hem of the jumper alongside a note, just no zip this time. It began in Chichester and is currently last known to be at 'Prestige Shopping Centre' in Nairobi, Kenya.

The Journey, depicted by Fiverr artists

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This Jumper was last tracked to outside 'Prestige Shopping Centre' in Nairobi Kenya. It began in a Wilcox warehouse in Birmingham for around 4-5 months and then suddenly sprung up in Nairobi. After its primary storage space, it made its way up Gikomba market, then was taken to it's current location. I havent had any updates for around one month.

Writing my train of thought in the process of building and executing this exhibition.