THE INTERMITTENT CAT

Wooden cat, brass rods.

The wooden cat sculpture originally belonged to my mother. Her boyfriend at the time, a man called Bernt who lived somewhere in Austria, carved it for her from a piece of oak. She liked the sculpture and it appeared in various locations around my childhood home, despite the face that my father did not like the sculpture because it was from a previous romance. So it goes.

Further to the death of all the above participants (information on Bernd was not available, and I am still currently alive (I think)), the house that belonged to my parents was cleared. My brother and I discussed what was what and at the end of it all the cat was there. He didn't want it. I didn't particularly want it either but I brought it away anyway. I was taking it to the charity shop, but en-route changed my mind and sliced it into pieces on a band saw and reassembled it with brass rods.

It was ironic that the piece was chosen to be included in the RWA's 171st Annual Open Show in Bristol, September 2024. I have never had anything else selected to go into the Academy and didn't have a great deal to do with the piece that was selected, barring the gaps.

Further to the exhibition, students at Bristol School of Art went around and made tea towels inspired by the artworks on show. One student chose to be inspired by the Intermittent Cat, and I was duly sent a copy of his work, which I was very happy about.

I was a bit put out at the time that the Intermittent Cat seemed to included in the cat section. I was equally put out that the cat section was adjacent to the testicle gallows and big nude man section. So it goes again.