'found'
Artist Statement
Hi, my name is John Dominic Fox a.k.a. dom. I am a sculptor, born in Coventry in 1957, and living and working in East London for over 20 years.
I studied Sculpture at St Martin’s School of Art from 1978-81 (BA Hons) and 82-84 (Certificate of Advanced Studies). I then attended the Foundry Practice course at Hackney College Poplar Centre (now Tower Hamlets College) on a part-time basis for several years until the facility closed.
During the 1990’s my studio/foundry was in the Old Spitalfields Market in London E1. In 1998 when that site was redeveloped I moved to Trinity Buoy Wharf in London E14 where my studio is still located.
Since the birth of my son Jason in October 2000 I have taught in Tower Hamlets College where I run the GNVQ Foundation Art & Design course for 16-19 year old school leavers. I hope that some of the kids’ creativity will rub off on my future work.
I made this bronze sculpture in the 1990’s. Most of the work was cast at Spitalfields Market although the earliest parts were cast in a colleague’s back garden in Dalston. The welding, final assembly and painting were carried out at Trinity Buoy Wharf.
I have shown the piece on site a couple of times and I entered it (without lighting effects) for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2000, where it was ‘selected but not shown’. This was a frustrating experience as it took a lot of effort and expense to set up in their gallery at their invitation before I was asked to remove it despite their “very high regard for my work”.
After appearing in a light based show in a nightclub venue it was dismantled and stored for a few years while my studio space was taken up with other projects. I recently reassembled the piece, installed UV lights and blackout drapes in order to take the photos for this website.
'Found' has not yet been shown in any art gallery. I would like to find a gallery interested in showing the work in a blacked-out space with UV black-lights. Such venues can perhaps be deployed to their best advantage when illuminating such a powerful visual statement as this sculpture.