I love a good “immersive sculptural experience”, me. Doesn’t everyone? So when a trip to visit family in Sheffield last weekend coincided with artist Phlegm’s time-limited installation, I was pleased as punch.
Phlegm is a Welsh-born but Sheffield-based muralist, cartoonist and street artist who first developed his illustrations in self-published comics. As well as being able to spot his creations around the Steel City, you’ve also at various times been able to catch him in Shoreditch. He’s bold and exciting; his work dripping with Tim Burton-esque macabre.
The gigantic creations that formed part of this particular event were littered throughout an abandoned warehouse, not far from Kelham Island. We cannily avoided the two-hour queue by arriving just in time to sneak in with the first tranche of the day. You get about half an hour inside, all-in-all, but need every second of that to explore the various nooks and crannies of the factory (itself an impressively atmospheric wonder, soon to be gutted and turned into flats) and gawp in awe at the huge sculptures.
It was difficult to do the exhibition justice on film, and properly convey the scale, but here are a few snaps of his fabulous work.
[Second photo (foot): Credit – Alison Groombridge]
That work looks amazing. Even through the lens and viewed on a phone it creates quite an atmosphere.