• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Cabaret Mechanical Theatre

Mechanical is our middle name

  • Automata
  • Making
  • Exhibitions
  • News
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Twitter
You are here: Home / Archived / The Only Non-slip Dodo Mat in the World

Filed Under: Archived, Artists

The Only Non-slip Dodo Mat in the World

Paul Spooner reviews a refreshingly new exhibition in Falmouth, Cornwall.

The result of collaborations with singers, dancers, actors and other creative types, this show is designed to help answer the oft asked and ofter avoided question; Where do you get your ideas from??

The answer is embedded in the 47 large sheets of plywood that Andrew Lanyon has shifted into Falmouth Art Gallery, erecting them around the walls of two rooms to form a zig-zagging labyrinth. It took him and his pals more than a week to put up and the effort cost him a significant proportion of his own bodyweight. Each sheet has one or more windows cut into it through which one can view scenes and objects, some of them activated by pulling on strings emerging from the fronts of the panels.

There’s a painting called ‘Self-portrait as Somebody Else’ at the beginning of the sequence, which the innocent visitor might take as the key to the rest of the show.

Andrew invents people; some of them are only partly fictitious- several of them coexist with human beings whom one can find living and breathing in Cornwall. Foremost among these compounds is Ambrose Fortescue, whose work excavating the remains of fairy civilisations has been documented in several films. He has also been known to invent his own fictitious characters. In his current incarnation, Fortescue makes himself at home within the hollows of statues in town squares from which vantage points he becomes the mouthpiece for his author’s ideas about inventiveness. Fortescue’s flesh and blood alter ego is Dave Slater, well worth a visit in his own right.

All this is explained in the books which accompany the exhibition. As is normal in Andrew’s ever-expanding universe of thought, this show is about one-third larger than when it was first planned so he had to write another book to cover the extra material. They are very much the books of the show- pretty well every exhibit is pictured in one or other of them. The first, chunkier volume, with the same title as the exhibition, explores the formation of ideas in a metaphorical discursive manner. The second volume; ‘Bifurcated thought’, is a quicker read and allows the reader to form the impression that he or she has grasped something of the author’s creative expeditions. Or one can take the scenic route by looking at the pictures.

Andrew’s gift is his ability to find and reassemble material, whether discovered in his own mind, in the works of other people or in the material world. An admirer of Max Ernst’s collages, his mission is to ‘get it right’?, as Ernst always does (Cornell only sometimes manages it, in Lanyon’s opinion). Some delicious examples can be seen in this show; this one, for example, uses standard surreal elements ( woman’s mouth, cutting from french newspaper) to make a perfectly alarming image.
More complex is ‘Fortescue’s Room’?, made from punched paper, sycamore seeds, fake crocodile skin, lead solder, oyster shell, aluminium foil and a sheet of rabbit skin glue as well as a thing made from plastic blobs stuck on wires that may be imitation mistletoe. Light shines eerily through the glue and the shell.Through some of the windows in the panels one can see works commissioned from local automata makers. There are also works by artists whose work is movement-free. All of it, though, amounts to a giant assemblage made from ideas, people and objects by a man whose favourite word, judging from his latest book, is ‘protean’?.

The Only Non-slip Dodo Mat in the World Paperback 132 pages.

BIFURCATED THOUGHT Paperback 60 pages.

Both books are available from the Falmouth Art Gallery for £10 each + post & packing.

Show ends 1 Feb
The Only Non-slip Dodo Mat in the World

More about Andrew Lanyon including collector’s versions of his books at www.andrewlanyon.com

Tagged With: Paul Spooner (on January 6, 2014 by Sarah) 1 Comment

Join our mailing lists for updates 

We respect your email privacy

Powered by AWeber Email Marketing


Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Chris James says

    January 14, 2014 at 3:23 pm

    Great article, Paul. Getting inside Andrew’s head is no mean feat, but you’ve burrowed in nicely and extracted the essence of this exhibition with great clarity.

    Reply
Previous Post: Fish by Richard Hackney
Next Post: Working with Brass, Part 1 – Cutting Brass – Dug’s Tips 13

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Recent News

  • Fabricating Motion Automata Workshop – October 2022
  • Automata Tinkering Global Workshop – September 2022
  • Howling Cats
  • Automata Tinkering Global Workshop – May 2022
  • Automata Tinkering Global Workshops – Jan 2022

Microblog

New - Fabricating Motion Automata Workshop

We are delighted to announce a pilot of our new online workshop led by Stephen Guy. It’s so exciting to be able to take this tried and tested workshop that we have been delivering in-person since 2013 and to develop it into an online version - Fabricating Motion - to share with our community of makers from around the world. Starts October 2022 More info

Automata Tinkering Global Workshop

The 6th running of Automata Tinkering Global Workshop starts 21 Sept. Book now for early-bird price 🦜 Places go fast. Join our community: 6 weeks of exploring mechanisms, materials and storytelling online + online studio visits / interviews with CMT artists. more info and booking

Family Workshop June 1st

We have 3 pieces on display in Little Mashers in St Leonards and we’re running a family workshop 1st June using our Cardboard Automata Kit to make your own machines.

To book a ticket click here

Cardboard Automata Kit

Now available in our online shop - the legendary cardboard automata kit!

Start tinkering and creating your own designs with this versatile kit. You will start understand the basic mechanisms including cams, drives and cranks as you put the kit together and try out different designs.

Developed by @firetheinventor this tried and tested kit has been enjoyed by visitors to our exhibitions and accompanying workshops for over 10 years. It has also been part of our online Automata Tinkering Global Workshops since 2020.

Buy here

Our Previous Show in Derby

at the Museuma of Making ran from 10 Dec - 13 Mar 2022 but you can still see the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre - virtual version. Although it may not stay online forever - let us know if it’s gone! Our other previous shows are here.

Last Few Places - now sold out

You can join the waitlist for our next Automata Tinkering Global Workshop is starting on May 10th. Join our community for 6 weeks of exploring mechanisms, materials and storytelling online. More info and booking

Latest Tweets

  • More from Carlos Zapata @carloszapataautomata - we have a limited edition of beautifully painted owls 🦉that have a… https://t.co/vgZ2D4ZgV7 June 23, 2022 11:48 am
  • 🐔We love this colourful hungry 🍉 Rooster made by Carlos Zapata @carloszapataautomata and for sale in our shop onlin… https://t.co/S2Lpm3hPHx June 23, 2022 11:47 am
  • The Lion Tamer by Ron Fuller. We also have a whole circus made by Ron where the Lion Tamer takes off his hat, passe… https://t.co/Umg4MOlf6v June 20, 2022 9:46 am
  • The Great Fishtank in the Sky designed by Keith Newstead was another regular seller in our Covent Garden days. The… https://t.co/3z535gEWzs June 14, 2022 2:45 pm
  • Follow on Twitter!

Tagged Posts

14 Ball Arthur Ganson Bruce Shapiro Cams Carlos Zapata Dug North Exhibitions Fi Henshall John Lumbus Kazu Harada Keith Newstead Kinetica Martin Smith Matt Smith News Pascale Michalski Paul Spooner Peter Markey Pierre Mayer ratchet Ron Fuller Sarah Alexander Sharmanka Simon Tait Sue Jackson Tim Hunkin Will Jackson

Footer


Cabaret Mechanical Theatre is a collection of contemporary automata founded in 1982. It has permanent and temporary exhibitions all over the world. We aim to entertain and inspire visitors, makers and collectors.

Recent

  • Fabricating Motion Automata Workshop – October 2022
  • Automata Tinkering Global Workshop – September 2022
  • Howling Cats
  • Automata Tinkering Global Workshop – May 2022
  • Automata Tinkering Global Workshops – Jan 2022

Connect with CMT

  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Contact
  • Automata
  • Making
  • Exhibitions
  • News
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2022 Cabaret Mechanical Theatre