They were in a show at VOID gallery, London and in a small space in Digbeth, Birmingham.

It’s only in the past few years that computer technology has made it easy to convert a series of images into an animation, so I created this video from scanned prints and photos.

Number banner situations

Paddy Doyle holds world records for dozens of fitness and endurance records.

An installation of number banners and arrows at Banana gallery Birmingham.
23rd Jan’ – 19th February 2002.

I was invited to do a show in Digbeth, Birmingham at the Banana gallery. I chose to display some number banners in an installation which described some of the endurance records set by a local celebrity Paddy Doyle.

Some semblance of the endurance record rules for push-ups (two hands, one hand), back pack carrying, Samson’s chair and Brick carrying were used with Number banners to describe Paddy’s feats of strength.

Click on a thumbnail to see images from the exhibition.

Number banners are held upright, the official Guinness rules for each record attempt were written using a purpose-built font called Stencil Letters. The style of this font attempts emphasise the practical nature of the banners as tools.

Cardboard arrows accompany both the written rules and the banners; an added dynamism, allowing the situation to have a closer relation to the record breaking attempts of athletes like Paddy Doyle and the rules he had to obey.

Postcard advertisement from the Number banners and dia' banners exhibition at the Void gallery.

Number banner situations and diagrammatic number banners
VOID gallery Hackney, London.
August 1999
511 Hackney Road, London E2 9ED

The Exhibition provided a first chance for Number Banners to be displayed in a public art gallery and consisted of several number banners, number banner arrows, Diagrammatic Number Banners and 2 number banner situations.

Figure-of-eight arrows on wall, painted white, ready for objects to be placed on or near them.

Figure-of-eight
10 interlocking arrows complete a figure-of-eight eternal cycle. When this dynamic arrow sculpture is placed on the floor more than one Number banner can be put onto or near the device to create a progression or a single movement for the Banners.
At Void Contemporary Art Space figure-of-Eight arrows were placed on the wall, but displayed without number banners this creation can stand on its own; exhibited as an item rather than in action.

Figure-of-eight text assisted this arrow set-up, it was displayed along-side the art piece and written in the stencil letter font >>

This work – like other number banner installations – describes dynamic movements and other dynamic qualities of the number banners. Their purpose is to be used for experiments in time and space; examining the first four physical dimensions: Time, length, breadth and height. It is important that the Number Banners are seen as having individual personalities in their own right as their ‘value’ affects the way that they act on the arrow set-up.

In the case of Figure-of-eight arrows the ten arrows can be seen as a reflection of the ten Number banners this is unusual as not all arrow set-ups contain ten arrows. This arrow set-up looks similar to a Scalextric track. In the child’s car game cars race around a track that has metal slots that conduct electricity to toy cars. Although with Scalextric the user determines the speed of movement for the cars, Figure-of-eight-arrow set-up allows the Number banners to travel without user assistance, the arrow set-up infers the Banners movement.

Number banner number 2

Twist arrow
In this situation the number banner spins, it needs to be imagined that the floor is not physically present. The banner is travelling in the direction of the pointed arrow.
This arrow really affects the appearance and so the personality of the number banner that is placed within it.

This is another example of the partnership between number banners and the cardboard directive creations.
Cardboard arrows give number banners direction and purpose, these cardboard circles offer islands for number banners to jump to.
Again, these cardboard constructions give a potential dynamism to the otherwise static banners. Number banner 5 was placed on the edge of one of the circles and the rest was left up to the viewer.

Pictures from the VOID exhibition