Author Archives: kpoley

Chris ‘Paradox’ Patterson

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Chris stands with one trouser leg rolled up, revealing his artificial leg, and arms raised to the sky Chris ‘Paradox’ Patterson is an ‘Inspiration Engineer’ and ‘one legged, existentialist, stand up, beat poet.’ He has been performing at spoken word events, festivals and venues across the UK and world since 2002.

After losing his leg in a diving accident in 2008, he has adapted his act and also runs inspirational performance poetry workshops.

http://www.inspiration-engineer.net

Click 'Film' button for a video of Chris in action

Green Horses on the Wall

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three green bikes emerge from the wall of Roehampton Library  Three green bikes emerge from the wall of Roehampton Library

 

 

  

 

 

Green Horses on the Wall developed from an installation project called Performance Parking (or, how to park your bike so it doesn’t get nicked!), which was commissioned for the Alton Estate, by Wandsworth Arts Festival in 2011, as part of a larger Bicycle Ballet project.

Watching the first bikes being installed above Roehampton Library, a local resident came up laughing that the installations reminded him of a saying in his country, Romania, ‘Green horses on the wall.’ When you see green horses on the wall, you’re dreaming of incredible or impossible ideas as in ‘a pipe dream’ or ‘when pigs might fly’.

The 2012 project will embrace this wonderful notion, with more impossible and improbable, recycled installations around the estate.

As part of the project, performance poet Chris ‘Paradox’ Patterson has been commissioned to create a short spoken word piece about ridiculous ideas and what crazy dreams mean for the local community. Download the poem here:  Green Horses – POEM

The installations went up on 9th May until early Sept around the Alton Estate

Performance Parking

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Silhouetted bike 'leaps' from the top of a pole into the sky

Inspired by the length you sometimes have to take to securely park your bike!

Painted to highlight the perfection of their design, the bikes are sky blue and tree green; conspicuously hidden in the urban landscape.  They are dada-esque in nature, surprising, unexpected, surreal interventions.

close up of inner workings of a bicycle bell painted green

 

‘Painting a bike lets you truly appreciate the perfection of its design,’ Karen Poley, Creative Producer

A blue BMX leaps from the top of a pole - seen from above

 

 

‘Everyday I open the curtains and my day brightens a little‘ one neighbour on the Alton Estate, Roehampton said of her bird’s eye view of one of the installations.

reCyculture

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A new project exploring physical and virtual installations, inspired by and created with local communities across Kent, in response to the county’s hosting of the Paralympic Cycling Evets in September 2012.

Creating iconic imagery in unexpected urban and rural landscapes, reCyculture Kent will literally put the bicycle on a pedestal, with a virtual layer, exploring issues, thoughts, facts, ideas, the good, the bad and the imaginary of cycling in the 21st century.

With local communities, we will explore ideas to create installations and develop virtual material working across a range of artforms including spoken word, stop animation, clowning and physical theatre, visual art and sound design.  Further details shortly…

The project has evolved from previous projects, Performance Parking and Green Horses on the Wall.

bmx bike leaps from the top of an old telegraph pole, the sun bursts from from a cloud behind against a blue sky. A tenement block sits in the corner of the image

Performance Parking

A green bike hangs on the wall of a block of flats, in between green treens

Green Horses on the Wall

the front wheel and handlebars of a bright green bike emerge from the wall of a block of flats in Roehampton

Green Horses in Putney