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Tin cans,
underground sounds and shopping centres: The work of Mike Badger
By Kenn Taylor
Visitors to the St. John's Centre - Liverpool's stunning, classical example of misguided town planning - can currently witness a slightly more unusual sight on the food court than weary shoppers enjoying a happy meal.
As part of a new project to encourage closer co-operation between art and business in the city, the owners of the shopping mall have opened up the area around the food hall and escalators as an art exhibition space. The first artist to have his work shown in the space is long established Liverpool artist and musician Mike Badger.
The
art on show is a selection of work from Mike's touring exhibition 'Lost
and Found'. It is a collection of sculpture he has constructed from junk
and 'found objects', a range of metal pieces covering everything from
fish to a giant rocket. Divided into three spaces, each section is dedicated
to a different theme - traffic, space, and the sea - with a range of different
works around each theme.
Asked why he liked working with found objects Mike said "Necessity is the mother of invention. I‘ve always had the desire to create and not really able to afford any other kind of materials, it just went on from there." Mike also takes a lot the inspiration for his works from the objects that he finds: "I usually find an object that already resembles something and usually try to enhance that" though he admits that "I have always had a fascination with sci-fi, robots, old car designs, things like that."
Sculpture
was not Mike’s first creative medium. He started out as a musician
and was in an early incarnation of one of Liverpool’s best known
bands, The La’s. But a lack of success prompted him to look in other
directions. "At the time everyone else was playing guitars and writing
songs, no one else was making stuff out of old cans." Mike still
keeps his hand in writing and recording songs, whilst co-running the Viper
record label, which specialises in "exposing great music that's fallen
through the cracks from Liverpool’s history." He also manages
to combine his love of art and music by designing album covers - most
famously 'Tin Planet' for local band Space at the end of the 90s - and
he currently does a lot of work for up and coming group The Great Northwestern
Hoboes.
Mike enjoys the chance to exhibit in St John’s "I'm always interested in showing my work in places where any kind of people go in, not just art galleries."