In an age of buy to invest instead of buy what you like, the making of art has been torn from human hands as mass-multiple prints flood the high street, while the buying of art is seen as rarefied and reserved for a wealthy few. Sketch-O-Matic is a full size photo booth situated in our busy café-bar, but where the machinery should be is a tiny, fully equipped artist’s studio. You, the public, are invited to sit inside as if for a photograph and make a donation to the artist through a slot for a self- portrait. Wait five minutes (give or take) and the image will appear. It may be a pencil drawing, doodle, cartoon, collage or even word-poem. Take it, frame it, consider it. Now you are both patron and muse!
Sketch-O-Matic will feature micro residencies with the following artists and poets: Cheesleigh the Poet, Simon Misra, Mary Naylor, Lauren Lucie, Anne Wilkins, James Clayton, John Allison, Mandi Caine, 8-bit, Kate Dunstone, Amy Marsh, Jimmy Lee, John Powell-Jones, Tasha Whittle, Lyndsey Winnington / Lispencie, Ben Harrison, Nick Hamilton, Jilly Cooper, Mark Aspin, David Bailey, Bethan Hamilton, Gemma Parker, Ross Phillips, Leanne Bridgewater, Kay Williamson, Steph Pike, Jonathan Edwards, James Condon, Radu Andriuta, Len Horsey, Pascal Little, Paul Loudon, Rebecca Crompton, Mike Chavez-Dawson, Sue Shaw, Hannah Dawn Henderson, Lisa Paterson, Anna Violet, Akiwyemi Oludele, Sara Ellis, Rebecca Audra Smith and Emma Reynolds.
Image: Nick Hamilton