insideKENT Magazine Issue 70 - January 2018 | Page 36
ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
KENT ARTIST PROFILE: TOTAL PAP cont.
Punch, Toby Dog and the Crocodile by Emily Firmin
Caged Beast Automata by Justin Mitchell
What are your favourite subjects when it comes to creating art?
For Emily it’s dogs and cats doing impossibly human things, Punch
and Judy, frogs, chameleons, weevils, lemurs, bushbabies and the like.
For myself it’s tall, freestanding anthropomorphic figures, pictures with
impossible perspectives, automata, humans being daft, and I really
quite like doing commissions of houses too.
How does your partnership work in terms of your art and ideas?
We both work on our separate pieces but often together in the same
space, referring to each other for ideas, colours and so on. We do large
projects together, like the Whitstable Oyster Festival parade, or decking
out pubs for the very inspiring John Rogers design group, The Jolly
Postie at Royston, or The Kingfisher on the Quay in Mytchett, Surrey
to name a few. If it's a larger job, then Emily and I will work on it together,
usually starting off with a selection of disparate ideas discussed heatedly
and involving fruity language, but always culminating in a mutually
pleasing end result.
What has been your proudest artistic achievement to date?
That would undoubtedly be the Royal Mail postage stamp that we
created as part of the 'Greetings' collection. Our stamp not only joined
images by Rodin, Lowrie, Eric Gill and Beryl Cook among others, but
our clown image was used to
promote the collection in post
offices around the country.
Where have you exhibited
your work?
One day at Camden Market a
large and very enthusiastic man
turned up at the stall and told us
that he had taken down the old
pictures in his pub and wanted
us to fill the place with ours. The
Three Kings of Clerkenwell
became a permanent venue for
us for many years, hosted by the
wonderful John Eichler, former
proprietor of the Hope and
Anchor in Islington during its
glory days as a popular music
venue in the late 70s and 80s.
The Kings was often frequented
by media workers from
The Guardian just around the
corner and other interesting
people. We got some good
exposure there and picked up our
working name – Total Pap.
We have had many exhibitions
around the country over the years
including The Mall Gallery, the
Towner, The Bede Gallery, The
Beaney, many more, and a
couple of shows abroad.
In 1993, we moved back down to
Whitstable and started exhibiting
in Cafe des Amis du Mexique at
the Westgate Towers, Canterbury,
and have been selling our
pictures from there ever since;
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it’s still one of our favourite places
to eat. Also, we take part in the
Whitstable open house event
every year as part of the
Canterbury Festival in October.
Our work is available to buy
locally from: Cafe des Amis,
Canterbury, Seagulls and
Flamingos, Whitstable and
Lovely's Gallery, Margate.
What does the future hold
for you?
That is an unsettling question,
but we have some nice events to
look forward to! We have
exhibited the moving pictures at
automata shows alongside some
fantastic makers, and in
September 2018 we will be
exhibiting at Paul Spooner’s 70th
birthday show at the First Gallery
in Southampton (dates to be
confirmed). We are also
exhibiting at the Michelin star
award-winning restaurant and
pub The Sportsman in Seasalter
from the 27th August to the
14th October 2018. We would love
to have a larger work space so
it's likely that will be a feature,
I'm sure.
[email protected]
www.totalpap.co.uk