UKYA City Takeover

Don't Linger - Installation View: UKYA City Takeover, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, 2019

Don't Linger - Installation View: UKYA City Takeover, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, 2019

Don't Linger - Installation View: UKYA City Takeover, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, 2019

It's always exciting to see members of the public activating Don't Linger and witnessing their reactions to the piece.

UKYA City Takeover Nottingham

Myself with Don't Linger - Installation View: UKYA City Takeover, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, 2019

Don't Linger - Installation View: UKYA City Takeover, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, 2019 

Don't Linger - Installation View: UKYA City Takeover, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, 2019

UKYA City Takeover spanned the city of Nottingham for a week in early February 2019.  The festival united 250 artists from 25 countries, showcasing a huge variety of contemporary work, from visual arts to performance; music; applied arts; literature; digital arts and moving image.

I was very happy to be involved in one of the largest biennials of national and international artists in the world, by exhibiting Don't Linger at Surface Gallery.  I was very pleased at how the public engaged with the work and the conversations it provoked. 

Aftermath of Ladies Room

Ladies Room (close up), Chaz Howkins, 2017, interactive installation

Ladies Room (close up), Chaz Howkins, 2017, interactive installation

Ladies Room (close up), Chaz Howkins, 2017, interactive installation 

Ladies Room (close up), Chaz Howkins, 2017, interactive installation

Ladies Room (close up), Chaz Howkins, 2017, interactive installation

I was very glad to see how many people interacted with Ladies Room while it was exhibited at Queer Art(ists) Now, creating a great pile of discarded toilet tissue on the floor below the dispenser.  Seeing the pile of tissues grow on the floor, being trodden on, dripped on, completely discarded really emphasised the throwaway nature of the comments people make to queer people in gendered spaces.  When someone in the ladies room asks me 'are you a woman?' it's a fleeting moment for them, they don't think about what they're saying, they just throw their words at me... but for me it sticks, it piles up, I can't just throw it away.

Queer Art(ists) Now

Ladies Room, Chaz Howkins, 2017, interactive installation

Self with work - Ladies Room

Queer Art(ists) Now provides a snap-shot of what artists within our communities are making right now; an insight into the thoughts, preoccupations, aesthetics, and politics of queer artists.

I was excited to have the opportunity to exhibit Ladies Room as it is an interactive piece and I wanted to witness the public's engagement with it.  The piece had a very positive response with hundreds of people taking the toilet tissues from the dispenser and dropping them on the floor to create a great pile of the discarded words.

Orbit UK Art Graduates Show

Myself with my artwork - Don't Linger

Myself with my friends and family and my artwork - Don't Linger

Audience interaction with Don't Linger  

Audience interaction with Don't Linger 

Orbit UK Art Graduates Show was an exhibition to showcase the talent of recent Fine Art graduates.  (One third of) Don't Linger was exhibited at OXO Tower Bargehouse in August and was very well received by the audience.

Don't Linger detail

Don't Linger (close up pre-installation)

Don't Linger (close up pre-installation)

Don't Linger (close up pre-installation)

Some examples of the text elements of Don't Linger, which can be revealed by lifting up the lids of the toilet seats.

Degree Show Opening Night

Myself with my artwork - Don't Linger

Don't Linger with audience

Don't Linger with audience

The opening night of the Loughborough Fine Art 2018 Degree Show was a great success.  My work was very well received and had members of the public interacting with it all throughout the night.  A very satisfying end to my time spent studying in Loughborough.

DD/MM/YY

Myself with my artwork

08/12/2017, Chaz Howkins, 2018, pencil on paper and pen on toilet seat

DD/MM/YY was an exhibition by students from Beuyce Studio as part of the inter-studio exhibition competition at The Welcome Mat.

Under lid experiments

Under lid experiment

Under lid experiment

Experimentation with alternatives to portraits under the toilet lids as a part of Don't Linger.

Text experimentation

Experimentation with text - printed and written directly on the wall.

Experimenting with backgrounds and surface qualities

With tile effect wall-paper

Text on tile effect wall paper

Finger print effect

Dirty seat effect on dark tile effect wall-paper

Various experiments involving tile effect wall paper as a background to transform the gallery space into a bathroom space.  I experimented with dirtying the lid to create a more realistic experience of using a public bathroom, but decided that this would put people off interacting with the work.  I also consider creating a finger print on the lid to encourage people to touch it, but felt that this was unnecessary and could also put people off interacting with the work.

Oil paint self portrait

Self Portrait in oil paint with fine liner text (under toilet seat)

At the beginning of the toilet seat project I experimented with different ways of creating the portraits, including oil paint.  I felt that my skills with pencil were much stronger than oil paint, so didn't take the oil paintings any further than one self portrait.