KIOSK

Utilising inherent principles within drawing, painting & sculpture, Charlie Stiven investigates the street kiosk as metaphor for social circumstance & condition.

Research conducted in a wide range of European locations into aspects of vernacular street architecture provided the tangible material to digest. This was accompanied by consideration of historical & current social / political / economic patterns and their effects.

The models are not copies of existing buildings, but rather structural amalgams & inventions composed through a manipulation of form, colour and surface to intensify their resonance & metaphorical character.

Within his working process Stiven juxtaposes elements evolved from highly structured planning with those that are arrived at through chance. This mix of the hyper-conscious and the accidental is intended to give the work a psychological tension which mirrors the often unpredictable consequences of human behaviour – the static objects designed to evoke an atmospheric of flux, transience and uncertainty.

Made over the past 10 years, his highly crafted 3D constructions seek to bring a new dimension to the notion and meaning of ‘the model’ and its position within contemporary

art.