Artist makes installation out of 20 tonnes of recycled paper and his Jeep

Picture: David Mach, artist, seen here in his London studio, picture by Peter Searle

Turner prize nominated Scottish artist David Mach’s has just launched a solo exhibition at the Griffin Gallery, London. Running until the 7th July, this is Mach’s first new newspaper exhibition for 15 years. Known for the iconic public sculpture the Big Heid’s – a tribute to the steel industry - seen in Lanarkshire on the M8 motorway into Glasgow, Mach’s last newspaper installation Bangers and Mash was shown at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow in 2002.

In this exhibition, titled Incoming, Mach will construct a huge, improvised installation from 20-tonnes of newspaper, which will look like a wave of paper exploding though one of the gallery walls and cascading into the room. Past installations have engulfed whole objects such as cars, furniture and airplanes. Mach’s artistic style is based on flowing assemblages of mass-produced objects and this new installation is no different as this large-scale piece will create an organic volume of colour and texture.

Speaking about his transition into magazine sculptures, Mach says:“Everybody at this time was making permanent works. Sculpture that was a solid form, welded together. It was formed out of wood or plastics, materials that could be put together permanently in some way and certainly ending up as some kind of object. I didn’t want to make objects. I wanted to make something that would certainly appear solid but that couldn’t be lifted up and carried away like an object.”

Becca Pelly-Fry, Griffin Gallery’s Director and Curator says: “David Mach’s work broadly addresses current global issues such as consumerism, waste and the impact of human consumption, through his use of the ‘stuff’ of everyday life in the 21st century. Making large scale sculptures and installations with overlooked or discarded objects such as coat hangers, matches, driftwood, magazines, old cars and other items picked up from junk yards, Mach draws attention to the increasing accumulation of objects and our throwaway culture as a society. I have long been an admirer of David’s ability to create spectacle with seemingly unremarkable materials, and it’s very exciting to be showing one of his newspaper installations in London after such a long hiatus.”

• READ MORE: Profile: David Mach Artist