Jack Stiling
'B_um', a.k.a., The Bin Car
Jack Stiling’s background as a self-taught inventor and mechanic led him to a Contemporary Crafts degree in Falmouth, where he began making automata and tactile art, continuing to learn from local artists through friendships and apprenticeships thereafter.
He comes from a family of makers, tinkerers and artists, brought up on a diet of folk, steam fairs and making your own fun. Subsequently, he came to value a well-stocked workshop and a headful of skills. He now makes art for himself and offers his skills in service to a growing company of talented folk; ideas bettered and fulfilled by the welcome collaboration of minds.
For him, play is a powerful tool in the freedom from the rules of daily life. Jack makes sculptures, costumes, playthings and toys, in an attempt to merge old and new, false and true. Often to be found collecting discarded waste and unwanted or obsolete items, he is exploring what these materials can say about us and how their intrinsic undertones can be used to draw actual and fictional stories.
Each piece a little reprieve in allowing us to open our eyes or just put on some new glasses, his aim is to make art that invites imagination, participation and play to allow another perspective on the everyday.
Bristol