7 Rules of Achievement: From Vision to Action The Complete Guide to Programming Your Internal Success Mechanism!!!

7 Rules of Achievement: From Vision to Action The Complete Guide to Programming Your Internal Success Mechanism!!!  2012 

willow, latex, stockinette,  pillows, card, paint, found objects

Faye Scott-Farrington & Sophie Daniel

Foamy Bathsoak is not your average maggot. He's a maggot with ambition, a maggot with a plan. Where his peers may be content and happy to live out their days in squalor and poverty, Foamy dreams of more. A career, a house, car, dishwasher, broadband connection…. some legs, perhaps?

Why should he merely live up to the expectations society has for a pupa? Why, when he has so much more to offer, should he be confined to a life in his subterranean bedsit like everyone else?He's read complicated books, he's working on gaining more qualifications, aiming higher. 2012 will be his year the year of the maggot. Foamy Bathsoak is determined to be different, he understands the job market is saturated but with his level 2 spoken French and O level in Mathematics this bug thinks he can go far. If he can survive in a box of soil, he has what it takes to survive the cut and thrust of the world today, Foamy wants to rise above the surface, break down the walls of his box and take on new challenges. Foamy Bathsoak is going to be living proof that change is possible for anyone.

We would like to show you around Mr. Bathsoak's home, to witness the changes that are taking place, see how he is making things happen and building himself a brighter future. One day you will be able to say “I knew Foamy Bathsoak before his success, before he became a living-legend”. His bedsit is small, but he won't be there much longer once his career kicks off, so there isn't much time... try and make yourself at home.

Come and witness his exceptional metamorphosis!

The work will be on show until June 5th 2012 at Saint Andrew's Court Shopping Arcade in Bolton

Foamy's Head

I tasked myself with making Foamy's head whilst Sophie stuffed the body

I used the same technique as with the body frame and the green man I've made for Midsummer Watch Parade

Building Foamy's Body

Sophie's plan...

I constructed a withy, paper and latex frame onto which stuffing could be attached, this was then covered in stockinette. 

I think the technique was flawed, Sophie struggled with stuffing the body and getting the latex to stick to the stockinette, which was thicker than the stuff I had used on the rat head I'd made for Manchester Day Parade. 

The overall shape of the body doesn't work in my opinion, it needs more podge around the bottom...

Foamy Bathsoak's Kitchen unit

possibly my finest work. 

We Face Forward at Manchester Art Gallery

I've been working behind the scenes of Manchester Art Gallery's new exhibition, We Face Forward; part of this summer's city-wide festival of West African art and music.
In the past weeks I've done mostly paperwork, researching the artists and organisations that are taking part in the events, but on Monday and Tuesday I had the pleasure of meeting and working with the artist Bartélémy Toguo. 
His newly commissioned work Redemption consists of two enormous chairs, one filled with the trappings of migration; bags, shoes, sacks etc and the other holding a number of border control stamps carved with words including "Liberty" "Peace" "No war". The installation turns the gallery into a waiting room full of the dreams of those migrants looking for a new life and their belongings.  


On Monday morning he explained to us that he wanted large knapsack type bundles making, he wanted them to be burstingly full. He had brought with him a number of beautiful pieces of wax printed fabric which he wanted making into bundles. 

Interestingly, the fabric was bought in Paris, Imported from the Netherlands, printed in Ghana using an Indonesian technique and designed in Manchester! 
a perfect example of the underlying colonial history within "traditional" African fabrics

In filling the bundles, we used all of the bubble wrap and packaging material within a five mile radius, and still managed to run out. The bubble wrap that had been ordered for the piece had not turned up and it took a huge amount of material to fill the fabric out fully. 
We got there in the end though. 

Whilst this was going on, Bartélémy was downstairs re-making his piece Transit 1, using a chainsaw to carve pieces of luggage. 

There were other bags to fill and shoes to tie on strings before the end of the day whilst Bartélémy cut new suitcases out of a huge log.

On Tuesday the chairs had been moved into place, ready to be piled high. Unfortunately, Bartélémy was running behind and was still working on his immigration stamp for the piece. He sent me to get some Ingres paper, and of course nowhere had any. After three shops, I found some but it wasn't heavy enough, I had to go back with a sheet and make sure it would be OK before committing to buy more. 

When his stamp was finished, Bartélémy pulled a few prints from it which looked great and then set about finishing the handles on his suitcases. 

After an interview and a wash he started filling the chairs, I didn't see the piece finished so it will be exciting to see on opening night!
I also had a nice chat with Emeka Ogboh, who has made three soundscapes for the festival. He has installed speakers which play sounds recorded in Lagos and as such was in a much more laid back mood than his friend Bartélémy!

We Face Forward runs from 2nd June - 16th September 2012 across Manchester Art Gallery, Whitworth Art Gallery and Platt Gallery of Costume.