OPERATION BOUNCE

JUMPING NEEDLES (2010)

By What To Name Your Children
(Carl Lund & Esme Chapman Jones)

Collection of Tattooed Bouncy Balls


Carl began collecting bouncy balls in late September, exactly 9 months before the 'birth' of the final show. Esme later joined in the effort, and without really having a clear idea of why they were doing it they began obsessively collecting bouncy balls (on average one a day) from all over London. Feeling the thrill and excitement of the surprise combination of colours that would appear once the 20 pence coin had slipped into the machine. Along with this there was the anxiety of the idea of paying for something else with a 20p coin, thus letting another bouncy ball remain imprisoned, the disappointment of getting the same bouncy ball twice or the machine at the local Cost Cutter running out. These feelings became so strong that it propelled the project to comically dramatic proportions.

Both Esme and Carl have in some way been collectors all their lives. They noticed between them that all the collections they have had themselves had never served a practical function or at least were far from the function they once served. They realised that there were two main types of collecting they were capable of: One served as a nostalgic mechanism, a kind of travelogue. Memoirs to revisit at another time. The other was just collecting for no reason: they fondly remembered collecting Coca Cola bottles and sweet wrappers when they were young and up until 'project bounce' had not practiced this kind of arbitrary collecting for some time.

Once they had collected a sufficient amount of bouncy balls they began to explore the potential of giving these objects a new function within the realm of fine art. They experimented with creating dinner party set ups and food plates entirely of bouncy balls.

They thought about how they had inadvertently taken away the original meaning and value of the bouncy balls. This was comparable they thought to people collecting original Star Wars figures only to keep them in their original packaging. These children's toys were being taken away from children and now served a new 'function' . The accessories had been degraded to the realm of items of collection and the whole idea of play was lost.

One of the initial ideas was a 'bouncy ball prison' where they put bouncy balls in a small cabinet: separated from each other and in a very confined space. This represented the diminishing of the real fun in bouncy balls but on another level the displeasure of both pupils at their inability to deal with the structure and restrictions that their creative institute had moulded. Aethetically they made a link with the Artist Joseph Cornell who was himself an obsessive collector. He was famed for his assemblages set in boxes. The artist would often display his piece at child's height and would serve soft drinks at cake at his private view.

In the end the two decided that the bouncy balls would benefit from some kind of human personality. After both receiving tattoos from a friend with a tattoo kit, they thought it could be a good idea to attempt to give a few of their bouncy balls tattoos, using only the most common and clichéd tattoos, Carl began tattooing the bouncy balls for their final presentation in the main building.
The result is What to Name Your Children's first artwork, Jumping Needles : an injection of comedy and absurdism into the gallery space which they are very proud of.