Performance • Early Performances • Wond'rous Life • 21st Century Performances • Free Games For May • More Performances • Mystery Tour • More Performances Pt.2 Music • Foggy 3, etc • Ermintrude Dylan • The Plastic Underground Sound • Early Works • Misc. Projects • Klanglabor • Illegal Media Radio • Misc. Projects pt.2 Films • Low Films • Art House Films

(Please be patient for images to upload. More features are regularly being added.) Please note that at the present time all the pictures on this otherwise impeccable site seem to have gone AWOL. Given the artist's technical limitations, he is attempting to combat this error by means of arcane Black Magic and by Blind Faith- until then you'll just have to imagine what some of these images are supposed to ruddy well look like. He'll fix it when he can be bothered, or when he reads a manual on rudimentary web-hosting. I wouldn't hold your breath... Preamble. Born of staunch Methodist and lapsed-Catholic stock, and raised in a Northern city once disparagingly described as 'Little Beirut', the wannabe Dandy and frequent clown Mr. Philip Wincolmlee Barnes has been amusing others- and, more importantly, himself- with his frequently cheap and sometimes cheerful brand of Art for some time (don't let those youthful looks below decieve you...) .Despite being partially disabled and clinically 'fed up' (to use a precise psychiatric term), Wincolmlee has, in equal measure, entertained and annoyed the public through the mediums of stage, screen, radio broadcasts, exhibitions and publishing, much to the detriment of both his wallet and to his credibility as a productive member of English Society. Feel free to wander around this site, and even to offer, if so inclined, sensible comments (see email address, right): like many a shy, retiring type he secretly craves your undivided attention. Don't encourage him too much, though - and no laughing at the back.

Visual Arts • Early Exhibitions • Red Gallery & Related Events • Miscellaneous Visual Arts Projects • "Urban Tourism" • The House & Garden Exhibition • 54 Degrees North Literature • Early Work & Misc. Prose • Script-writing & Plays • Journalism, Reviews & Articles • Illegal Media Magazine • Independent Art School • Literature & Performance Current Email: wincolmlee @yahoo.co.uk

Early Performances. Safe in the confines of the Home for The Terminally Confused, Wincolmlee lights an elicit cigar and waxes lyrical about his first public performance (discounting his early playground revue shows and his breakdancing demonstrations at the local Salvation Army hall): "I first treaded the boards performance-wise as a kind of stool pigeon for the self-styled 'daft electro punk' band Dogmuck (pictured below). My largely-improvised role involved smashing Pink Floyd LP's with a hammer, burning my arm with molten wax, stealing people's drinks, and throwing bricks at them. Aside from the odd grazed shin it went down rather well.

Subsequent tomfoolery involved being suffocated in a rotting carpet, knocking over portable television sets (only partially intentional) and having the singer ladle his testicles into my ear whilst being pinned down to a chair. Obviously we must have watched too much TisWas as impressionable children. Despite an initial flurry of success- the band even won a recording contract- Dogmuck folded after the guitarist, trapped in a stolen shopping trolley, fell through a window whilst making a promotional video."

Dogmuck: Just Good Friends

"My next foray into this kind of thing took place in the darkened basement of an Art School, a venue where most First Year Fine Art students seem to gravitate to work out their Existential Angst (having to live on baked beans, Mummy not there to do the laundry, etc). Accompanied by a pre-recorded soundtrack of wailing guitar feedback, I gave an intimate account of dubious authenticity (although a bit about somebody once plotting to murder me had more than a ring of truth about it).

Quoting Rousseau ('When nature made me, she broke the mold'), Confession borrowed from the writings of St.Augustine and, somewhat on the other side of the theological fence, Alistair Crowley. Such carryings-on no doubt accounted for my pasty white palor at the time."

Obviously 'mad for it' by now (as youths are sometimes wont to say), Wincolmlee then presented, at The Ferens Art Gallery in Hull, 'The Secret Heart of a Liontamer'. This was part of a big Live Art 'do', so this time he not only got fed and intoxicated on free Arts Council wine, but also had a proper dressing room to boot.

The protagonist of the title- a harrassed office junior who trains lions in secret- performed a number of obsessive acts (applying makeup, snorting coffee granules, wrapping audio tape around the audience's chairs, etc) whilst a soundtrack played in the audiotorium. The story is set in a society of media hysteria, housing estates 'like concentration camps', and a surveillence-obsessed policing culture. Quoting the Great Marx (Groucho, that is)- "The rich get richer and the poor get children"- the Liontamer rails against this Orwellian environment, in the way that only rudimentary sociologists can.

That used to be a perfectly good shirt.

In dubious, although at that time topical, taste, Wincolmlee also managed to shoe-horn in an alternative report about the death of Princess Diana: "The Princess was tucking into a burger at McDonalds when a van load of pigeon fanciers smashed through the window, sending blood, shit and feathers flying everywhere." What on earth was the poor man thinking?

Not to be encouraged.

The climax of this garbled process was The Liontamer stabbing himself in the chest and leading a procession into the town square where, for some reason, he climbed a statue of Queen Victoria and gave a speech about Emporer Nero. Having been rather enthusiastic with his theatrical pomp, the Gallery Attentdants were left to mop up a mixture of red paint and blood off the floor. To date, Wincolmlee has never performed at the venue since.

A fortnight after 'LionTamer, the artist presented a diatribe called EsoTerrorism at The Red Gallery. The piece began with the artist smashing bottles and shoving jam and broken glass in his mouth. Unfortunately, this did nothing to prevent him from speaking, which he did, at length, about an art theory called 'aesthetic terrorism', and anecdotes relating to street drug culture. After distributing doctored pornography and examples of Government mass-employment propaganda, Wincolmlee then paid every member of the audience a penny each for their time. So the whole thing only cost him about three pounds fifty, and a few rebukes for using the word 'terrorism' in a public place.

[A call for] "poor art, [an] art that uses discarded materials and abandoned locations, without the sophistication of ticket sales or stylish publicity..." -Dr. Roland Miller The Remote Control Man (left) was a three-act work about the life and deeds of Emporer Nero. It took place- largely on the streets of Hull- in the Winter of 1998. Using a city centre square as an amphitheatre, before moving on to an outdoor fountain, and then ending in a nearby club, the artist (using masks to depict the characters) quoted from Emporer Nero and from his mentor, the Stoic philosopher Seneca. Through a procession of bloody rags and hecklers, the artist guided his audience through his fascination for Nero's rise to fame, as both an egotistical public showman and as a destructive, violent despot. But he did tidy up after himself afterwards. Good lad.

Unlike some previous works- such as 'The Remote Control Man' or 'LionTamer- Ritual in the Dark (right) was just that: a series of seemingly unrelated actions that took place in the darkened confines of a small gallery space. During the piece the artist was confined within a cocoon of black bin liner material suspended from the ceiling. With a dictaphone around his neck emitting strangulated electronic noises he poured wax over his hands (which concerned the Health & Safety conscious due to the fire risk), and stabbed at the lining in darkness with a silver dagger (narrowly missing his eye at one point, thus adding another small scar to his increasingly self-harmed body. The idiot.) A number of sombre passages were then played on the tape recorder (about 'silence becoming an illicit joy'), before the artist then tore himself free, playing 'She's Not There' by The Zombies, and smoking a large cigar, and looking rather smug. Apparently it had something to do with 'embracing past orthodoxies', a cultural idea espoused by the self-styled Satanist Anton La Vey, and reflected in J.K.Huysmans' novel 'Against Nature'.

The Destruction & Art Symposium, as the title implies, involved more messy goings-on, combined with Wincolmlee's brand of intellectual pretention ("If you can contextualise it you can get away with almost anything" seeming to be his rationale at the time). Barefoot and his face bandaged, the artist first went about annoiting a small room at the Red Gallery by sprinkling scented oil around it (and on anyone who got too close).

Wincolmlee then proceeded to give a slide show and talk on the Vienesse Actionists, a contentious artists group who specialised in covering each other, and willing victims, with blood, shit, piss and animal corpses, and frequently getting nicked in the process for doing so. After his talk he slashed at his bandaged face with a knife, sending streams of (fake) blood running down his cheeks. Following this the artist nailed blocks of wood to his feet (nails between the toes, none Messiah-style) and smashed a number of bottles that had been placed on shelves around the wall by throwing rocks at them (frequently stumbling, missing, and nearly hitting the audience in the process). He then swung a hammer that had been suspended overhead, whose unpredictable swings bashed chunks out of the wall (and almost peoples' heads) before it shattered a wine bottle in the centre of the space. Evidently pleased with this, he kissed the gallery floor and handed out hand-drawn love hearts to those who had managed to put up with it all. The then-committee of the gallery, unimpressed by the leftover lumps of plaster, shards of glass and pools of wine, were to pull the plug on the artist shortly afterwards. There's no justice in the world.

Be My Baby: also the subject of two of Wincolmlee's films (see Film section).

During The New Hull School of Art project (see section elsewhere) Wincolmlee gave two performances. One of these ('The Mask & The Resistance') was a collaboration with Pippa Koszerek, combining speeches, poetry recitals and video loops. Be My Baby (left), based on an aborted novel (yes, another one) involved the artist presenting excerpts of the work- a series of misanthropic, mastubatory ruminations by 'a sexually morbid misfit'- from behind a tent enclosure. He seemed to cheer up a little, though, after coming out of the tent, pouring red paint into his eyes with a dropper and slicking back his hair with Brylcreem to The Ronette's song 'Be My Baby'. As something of a precursor, Wincolmlee left the tent with the aid, uneccesarily, of a walking stick; nowadays he has to use one for real. It stops him from throwing rocks at people, though.

The Birds of Tin, inspired by Charles Madge's surrealist poem about imaginary animals of the same name, took place at Hull Time-Based Arts in late 1999. Attired in a black hat and an Oriental Magician's mask, the artist read from the poem. He proceeded to arrange various pairs of old shoes on the floor, dropped down on all fours, jumping from one pair to another- sometimes beating the shoes together like cymbals- whilst offering (somewhat breathlessly) possible interpretions of the poem. At the end he declared, "One more attempt to walk on the water and then I am done." At which point he leapt from one pair of shoes to another before he tripped and fell, banging his head on a wall. The end. (Footnote. Unfortunately, the shoes used were in a truly disgraceful condition, and the artist was reprimanded for leaving them lying around in the venue for weeks afterwards: apparently they were putting off potential financial backers, and contributed to him being deemed unfit to be employed by the said organisation. Bugger!).

That's the Early Performances over and done with. Why not have a look at something else (such as what's outside your window)?

Wond'rous Life. Over the summer of 2000 Wincolmlee took part in Wond'rous Life, a performance art tour that began in Sheffield and concluded at the (somewhat forlorn) seaside resort of Tunstall. Devised by Dr. Roland Miller, the project traced a curved-line trajectory towards the East Coast. A number of artists were invited to give performances- some public, and some in private- at the four locations chosen (other artists taking part included Pippa Koszerek, Steve Santa Cruz Booth, Cathy Wilson & Pip Wain, Em Druiff and Karen Paish).

Wond'rous Life began at The Garden Rooms in Sheffield, a cluster of buildings formerly used by metalworkers, and subsequently as studios for jewellers, blacksmiths, painters, musicians and costume designers. Using the wooden frame of a Wendy House- as he did at the other sites- Wincolmlee presented 'Instruction', a piece which revolved around him constructing a miniature building, explaining his reasons as he did so whilst wearing a cardboard helmet over his head.

	At Fan Field Curve, a private wood several miles east of Sheffield, and the site of a dismantled railway line, Wincolmlee presented his 'Inside/Outside Actions'.
From inside the base of the aforementioned Wendy House, the artist soaked stones in a bowl of red paint (the liquid later then drank and spat back out) and set fire to bagfulls of stones hanging from the trees above him. God knows why.

The third location was The Grosvenor Mill on the banks of the River Hull, a former industrial building adapted into numerous studios and performance spaces. At this venue Wincolmlee performed 'Secure Units'; after constructing the Wendy House frame he sat down in it and recited a memorised monologue written the previous evening, about the necessity of having private space (be it physical or mental). On Tunstall beach, to the curiousity of passers-by, the artists constructed washing lines, marked off areas of the beach with stones, string and wooden poles, erected a 'living monument' (in the form of Pippa Koszerek in a sea-soaked gown), and invited people to read poems and make wishes. The whole thing was a breath of fresh (if sometimes rather nippy) air. Images in this section by Dr. Roland Miller, Steve Santa Cruz Booth & Pippa Koszerek.

21st Century Performances. Clearly not knowing when to call it a day, Wincolmlee broke in the next millennium with a steady stream of Performance Art spectacles to amuse, beguile and confound members of the public. He ruined a lot of articles of clothing in the process.

In 2000 he was commissioned by Hull Time-Based Arts to stage work for their 'Tricks, Pranks & Interventions' festival. His first offering was 'International Curriculum', during which he drew spectacles on his face (see left), and devised a constitution for, as he put it, 'a total peace solution'. He then led the audience to a private basement (much to the feigned amusement of tenants in the same building), read out the lyrics to the John Lennon song 'God', and then submerged his head in a bowl of red paint. The basement, strewn with old tyres, knackered chairs and dead pigeons, had been liberally sprayed with the artist's urine prior to this rather confusing 'happening'. He can no longer remember the point that he was trying to make, if indeed any.

He also presented 'Sunday School: The Fall of Adam' (below), in which he flaunted the non-smoking policy of the festival venue, poured rubbish all over its nice new (and rather costly) floor, and made hand-prints on pieces of paper. He also read selected passages from Herman Hesse's novel 'Demian', put a carrier bag over his head, imitated a cow by mooing into an empty beercan strapped to his face, and tied a chair to his leg which he dragged, on all fours, across the gallery. Utter ruddy nonsense, I'm sure you'll agree. And he got paid for it.

By 2001 Wincolmlee was living, although not entirely legally, in a studio at the Grosvenor Mill, where he had previously performed (see Wond'rous Life). During this time, and inspired by the reclusive Viennese artist Rudolf Schwarzkogler, he carried out a number of performance art actions purely for the benefit of the camera, largely using paint, clingfilm, knives, and any other rubbish that he could find lying around in the unheated space. With Pippa Koszerek (who was the photographer) he also constructed a number of 'grottos' in a similar spirit. Too much time on his hands, obviously. These photographed actions were eventually shown in Russia in an exhibition called (roughly translated) 'Things I Do In My Room'. Incidentally, Wincolmlee's article on Schwarzkogler, published in the American journal 'Reconstructions', can be found here.

In April 2001 the artist presented 'One Side of Debussy' at an event called 'The Fist of the Fourth', which celebrated failed and/or unfulfilled projects. Documentation relating to this performance was later exhibited at Rotherham Arts Centre in a show called 'Unrealised Ideas', curated by Jennie Savage. Largely a talk, given over the duration of one side of a Debussy LP (hence the title, dumb ass), Wincolmlee described his misdemeanours with rotting pigs heads, photography-related accidents (falling off tables, etc), carrier bags full of dogshit, and being turned down for an Arts Council grant for sending them a photograph of a doctor seemingly interfering with a pre-pubescent girl (smart move, dumb ass).

The following month he took part in an outdoor event called 'Life Stories', organised by Harry Palmer and Paul Burwell. A multi-media event, including live music and video screenings, it explored, through a number of readings, the lives of those buried in the cholera cemetaries near the banks of the River Hull. Naturally, with his near-perfect diction, Wincolmlee's role was to be one of the many readers (all suitably attired in sombre and funereal outfits). In the same month he also carried out another piece, Pyramid Actions, in which passers-by could watch him build small pyramids from discarded bricks on derelict land along the riverbank. Obviously a man destined to be funded by the DHSS for the rest of his (un)natural life.

Free Games For May. May 2001 was particularly sunny, and the heat must have gone to Wincolmlee's withering brain, for he staged 'Free Games For May', an outdoor performance event on Beverley Westwood (a historic stretch of open pasture land in the East Riding, at that time suffering from an epidemic of Foot & Mouth disease). The performances that he gave were seen (if not entirely understood) by people out walking their dogs, a stoned guy, a wedding party, and a kind old lady who told him what a nice young man he was (little did she know...) It was very much in the spirit of 'Wond'rous Life' and involved Wincolmlee having a nice picnic, organised by his then-girlfriend and photographer Pippa Koszerek (a somewhat thankless role, it has to be said).

He performed two actions. The first of these, Labor Day, was a series of intentionally repetitious mark-making and stone collecting exercises, involving him circumnavigating a landmark, the Black Mill tower. For I Own This he emblazoned a large initial 'P' onto the grass by cutting into the undergrowth with a pocket knife. These sterling contributions to agricultural life have, like so many of Wincolmlee's efforts, yet to recieve their due gravitas and respect. This is largely due to the fact, quite frankly, that they are rather pointless.

More Performances (he doesn't give up...)

'The Expelled' (left) was presented at National Review of Live Art platform event in October 2001; it involved the artist performing intentionally-mundane actions (e.g. making tea, shaving, washing windows, etc) over a recorded extract from Samuel Beckett's novella of the same name, regarding a misanthropic vagabond ejected from his rooming house, wandering amongst a passing funeral procession, and ruminating on his habit of soiling his trousers. Hardly vaudeville-style entertainment.

In July of the same year, to commerate the 5th Anniversary of The Red Gallery, he presented 'Unfinished Things'. This debacle involved him performing press-ups (and not very impressive ones) within a pentagram formed from string, drawing alternative bodies on a photograph of The Jackson Five, and handing out cigars to keep hecklers quiet. Not the most flattering homage to the hard-working gallery, but if you pay peanuts you get monkeys, as the saying goes.

Mystery Tour (also known as 'Red Road'). One of Wincolmlee's most fondly-remebered works, Mystery Tour was a collaboration with Pippa Koszerek and it took place in Lincolnshire as part of the 54 Degrees North festival in March 2003.

These objects had been planted privately on each platform before the visitors had arrived. After sandwiches had been made and cuttings had been collected up, the duo led a procession up the red road and onto the banks of the river, where a war-time evacuee's suitcase lay waiting. It was opened, revealing a number of holiday and travel-related papers, such as passports, birth certificates, medical cards, and period postcards.

Our happy couple stared out at the estuary horizon as the audience quietly made their way back to the waiting coach. Described as evocative and reminiscent of war-time films, Mystery Tour nearly brought one poor soul to tears (England had just got involved in another ruddy conflict in the Middle East at the time) and, uniquely, Wincolmlee failed to smash anything, injure himself or use swearwords. A bloody first, By Jove! Photos: The Artists & Mr.Jonny Bates (Wincolmlee says 'Thanks').

More Performances (Pt.2). In April 2003, under the guise of 'The Hull Kingston Rowing Club Players' (featuring Wincolmlee, Paul Burwell, Derek Allsop, Rob Cary, Anthony Housman & Ray Wilkinson) the group staged 'An Evening of Nostalgia & Light Entertainment' at the venue on the banks of the river.

Principally devised to present an authentic version of Samuel Beckett's 1982 theatre piece 'Quad', the evening also included a number of other acts & installations, including a functioning Dreamachine (a potentially-hallucinogenic optical device built by Rob Cary), a 'Zen Poetry Machine' (made from a pull-handle fruit machine, which could 'write' its own poems), and with other live contributions from Brian Routh and Corona Smith.

'The Conversation in the Drawing Room' (right) was given, in May 2003, at the '100% Anlaby Road' exhibition. Assisted by Pippa Koszerek the artist read from Weldon Kee's poem of the same name whilst creating an action painting throughout the piece.
This was to depict 'a growing bloodstain'- the subject of the conversation between the two genteel characters in the poem itself. Not for the first time, the artist ended up with some of the paint on his face, too (sigh).

In August 2003 Wincolmlee presented two works for the 'Ad-Lib' weekend of live music and performances in Hull. At the Kingston Rowing Club he presented 'Q & A & A', in which he had two identical question-and-answer 'conversations' between himself and a dictaphone. In the first instance normal questions- such as "How are you?" and "How are you feeling?", etc- are met by conventional responses. In the second part, the answers became surreal, misanthropic, threatening, ("My head is full of ants", "If I had a gun I'd shoot myself", "I could turn a flame thrower on you all", etc.) The piece was adapted from texts written by Ian Breakwell.

In Home Counties (above and below) the artist secured his left arm to a table with a vice, opened the sleeve on his jacket, shaved the arm, poured soil over it, and 'ploughed' it with a toy tractor. It was then, via a prerecorded sales pitch on a cassette player, put up for auction ("As a right-handed masturbator, we can say with certainty that the left arm is virgin territorry completely.") Amongst the bids, which the audience filled out on cards during the sales patter, were suggestions to built a new supermarket on it, and one offer to 'part-exchange it for the remains of my amputated left leg'. A pithy statement on the nature of ownership and redevelopment, indeed.

Seemingly enamoured with Ian Breakwell, in September 2003 Wincolmlee also presented 'The No News' (adapted from Breakwell's 'The News') at the Hull School of Art, in which he played the role of a walking newsvendor, handing out cards of newsclippings from a sleepy provincial newspaper ('No Comment on Lawn: The Parish Council is unlikely to make any comment on the increasing size of the lawn at 23 Spinney Road', and so forth).

In Novemember 2003 Wincolmlee was invited to take part in 'imetexture', organised by Jez Riley, as part of The Humber Mouth literary festival: a number of experimental text-based sound works were presented, including Wincolmlee's 'The Origins of the Earth' performance. During this piece the artist presented his 'exam notes' from a distance-learning course on coastal erosion. The tapes that he had been given to guide him, however, and which he played before the auidience, were faulty (in reality, doctored by the artist), and the presentation became an askew interpretation of the career of pop singer Cliff Richards- this somehow gleaned from the altered tapes about the changing coastline. Probably mildly libellious, but it got some good reviews (that's show business, folks).

Wincolmlee has continued to do live performances, although many of these are covered in the 'Literature' section elsewhere, as they have more to do with scriptwriting, poetry and theatre, and less to do with spilling bowls of paint and breaking things. In April 2005, however, he performed at 'Three Minute Warning', staged at the Hull Art Lab. In the first of two pieces, 'Confused Beyond Compere', he played the role of a Hollywood nightclub host introducing (with slanderous innuendo) a series of such unlikely acts as 'The Charlie Manson All-Stars', the Reverend Jim Jones (leader of a religious sect whom heforced to commit mass-suicide), and Budd Dwyer (a corrupt State Treasurer who blew his brains out live on TV).

He also presented 'Not Working Out', a keep-fit routine with a difference. Directed by a sinister voice on a prerecorded soundtrack, the artist obediently carried out a number of self-destructive and shaming acts; swigging vodka mixed with large quantities of pills, putting up with a barrage of insults from disembodied voices, being forced to masturbate (simulated), and slashing at his wrists with a knife (real).

Unfortunately, around this time, his sometimes-chaotic art was merging a little too easily with his life and, suffering from ill health and severe depression, the culmination of the piece proper was the artist attempting to commit suicide within hours after the event. Diagnosed with suffering from nervous exhaustion, he was detained under the Mental Health Act in a Secure Unit shortly afterwards, which at least kept him off the streets for a while.

In 2007, after something of a hiatus in his unprofitable career (see reasons, above), the artist was persuaded to tread the boards again for a number of local events from May onwards ('Wilberforce Night', organised at The Lamp by author Chaz Tempest, 'Umber Gob', organised by Jane Foster, and appearances at the regular Bohemian Revolution nights at The Haworth Arms). Alongside other musicians and poets, he presented a mixture of spoken word material, send-ups of well-known songs, and comedic routines. These included a correspondance between the artist and Pete Townsend (albiet fictional), whereby the artist allegedly 'stalked' him over the Internet; a course in 'HipHopnotherapy' (or how to speak 'street'); lurid poems about an equally lurid DVD collection, and a series of job rejection letters from unlikely sources of employment.

One of these routines, 'How To Poison Your Wife' at Ye Olde Black Boy, was a somewhat messy cookery lesson, whereby the artist demonstrated how to do just that, using jars of fresh urine, smashed eggs and other foodstuffs, DIY tools, fake blood, screws, and used condoms. Very edifying, I'm sure you'll agree. Not really suitable for Children's Parties (although Hell Fire Club soirees might be an option...)

Alongside the esteemed and varied likes of CrackTown, Ussif Nagi, Joe Hakim, Mike Watts, the James Dean Syndrome, YOL, Jim Sorrow and the Scarlet Lights theatre company, Wincolmlee performed at the first 'Off The Road' variety show in August 2007. This took place at The New Adelphi Club in Hull and blended live music, poetry, theatre and spoken word acts. Wincolmlee's contribution was an intentionally camp (and in some places rather vulgar) story, about a man repressed by his mundane job and by his homelife (not autobiographical, honestly...). With the aid of local writer Andy Whatmough, dressed in a Pest Controller's suit, the artist was also subjected to some Health & Safety-type procedures, culminating in him being cordoned off whilst onstage, and then being silenced - and not before time - by having a box placed over his head to shut him up. This latter detail should probably happen more often. 'Off The Road' is taking place again in September (see 'Current' section).

It doesn't really look as if Wincolmlee is mending his ways, does it? It's not big and it's not clever. Just leave. Now.

Music. The artist bought his first tape recorder at the age of ten. During the mid 1980’s he was making experimental pop music and a rudimentary form of hip hop (“You could steal bits of other people’s records, and didn’t need to know how to play an instrument properly,” he explains.)

By the early 1990’s he had graduated towards a cheap acoustic guitar and power chords, and worked with several transient ‘bedroom’ bands, including an accoustic thrash metal duo called Cave Dweller (who were rumoured to have recorded their first tape in a prostitute's bedroom) and the cheerful, innocuous pop outfit The Feedback, who played a sole, and rather shambolic, gig at the keyboard player's birthday party. After issuing a barrage of low-fi cassettes, a local music magazine generously described Wincolmlee as being a species of Phil Spector, although Wincolmlee lacked the latter’s legendary reclusive tendencies, his arsenal of firearms, and his commercial success.

Early attempt (circa 6 yrs old) at multi-tasking.

His public debut proper came in 1992 with the release of 'Sawn Off Sex Kitten' by The Foggy Three, a musically-troubled duo formed with Zorg Traveller (the 3rd member was an annoying drum machine, regularly slated in reviews). “Turgid indie-trash,"summarised a local newspaper. The band decided to stick to this winning formula for their follow-up album Dr.Z- Lover of Arts in 1993. With song titles such as ‘Acid Pig’ and ‘Magic Dogshit’ critical acclaim was not on the agenda, although one journalist conceded that “this sort of thing was taken incredibly seriously by independent record companies in the early eighties, who saw it as art and put out full LPs, expecting people to buy them."

The Foggy 3's debut release: "Turgid indie-trash backed by a naff drum machine."

The Foggy 3 later became, with a seamless absence of maturity, The Corsican Brothers, a name taken arbitrarily from an old circus playbill. Their first cassette, “Dan’s Bastard Hammers”, won the prestigious ‘single of the week’ accolade in the local paper, and the duo were described as ‘strange’, ‘unique’, ‘endearing’, ‘unsettling’, ‘kitsch’ and ‘easy listening’. 'Emotional Retard', from 1997, perhaps indicated in its title the intellectual burn-out of two grown men spending long evenings in a loft doing overdubs. Zorg Traveller left to devote his energy to the ‘evil breakdance punk’ group Dog Muck by the late 1990’s, whom Wincolmlee would join on stage occasionally (see Performance section elsewhere).

The Corsican Brothers.

From 1993 onwards the artist made solo recordings and gave concerts under the pseudonym ‘Ermintrude Dylan'. Playing With Myself was the accurate title of his first release, recorded on truly antiquated equipment, and which contributed to the frequent domestic unrest in the parental home.

“He should choose a couple of songs, work on the arrangements more, and record them properly," the music press sagely advised. When he did, at the Warren Studios for his second and third releases (Open & Disturbia), the media response was, “To be honest, it hasn’t made a lot of difference.” Nonetheless he persevered, duly becoming recognised as ‘Hull’s most prolific song writer,’ and, more specifically, ‘the Bard of Hawthorn Avenue’ (neither, noticeably, an argument as to whether he was actually any good.)

With that sort of encouragement it wasn’t long before he took to the stage, making his live debut at one of Hull’s competitive Sound Track heats (at that time regionally renowned for showbiz-style tantrums and inter-band bickering, which Ermintrude was too aloof- and untalented- to take part in). “His cryptic between song comments and general all-round freakiness provided the most outwardly entertaining show of the evening. Strangely, he could also sing,” a journalist enthused. “I particularly liked his open shirt, Roger Daltry-style, revealing that rippling muscular torso of his,” another admitted, possibly not entirely seriously. “I gigged for a year or so, but gradually tired of walking to venues in the pouring rain and being handed, at best, a few quid by a stoned bloke in a car park after the show. Also I began wandering offstage to fish out bits of poetry to read, when my guitar was even more out of tune than normal, which no doubt confused people,” he confesses, from his less-than palatial studio. He had gone as far as he could with a guitar rigged with a dressing gown cord for a strap. “If Ermintrude ever had a band he would probably be quite dangerous,” a critic had concluded after his last gig. “(Like) Jonathan Richman with zero self-confidence busking down Whitefriargate,” said another, more realistically, after his penultimate show.

'Happy Hour Ended One Hour Ago' CD	'Songs from the Home, Songs from the Street' CD	Not to be deterred, he continued to record and in 1996 was awarded another coveted ‘release of the week’ slot in the local press. “I’d stop short of calling his work genius, although it has a certain magic,” the reviewer conceded, stopping short quite wisely.
At the turn of the 21st Century he continued to produce a number of albums, largely for his own amusement (although they worked on the ladies on more than one occasion!), including 'In Rooms' and 'Songs From The Home, Songs From The Street.' He keeps threatening to re-master them on better equipment, but, to date, nothing has come of this. His last full-length album, 'Dead Boy, Dead Girl, Dead Universe', a product of pill and drink-fuelled psychosis, was completed before a spell in a Psychiatric Secure Unit. Since becoming partially-disabled, Ermintrude hasn't been able to record or perform with the same gusto as previously. Thank God.

Inbetween making cheap and cheerful pop music, the artist has also worked with The Plastic Underground, who veered in the direction of gargantuan indulgence; a mighty colossus of improvisation, tape loops, lengthy jam sessions and modest ambitions (such as releasing a six-hour boxed set, never quite realised). “Tangerine Dream were a big influence, for better or for worse, as were cheap bottles of red wine and sherry,” the artist explains. His long-suffering colleague Zorg had accumulated an appropriate number of analogue synthesisers for the task.

Their first album, not surprisingly, had a concept. And In The Dream (circa 1993) was loosely based on dream experiences, and amalgamated aliens, rainfall, garden parties and excepts from pornographic films over three sequential tracks. The voice of Robert DeNiro unwittingly contributed to a fourth. The second album, No Man’s Land (1995), continued in this direction with pieces such as Owl Creek Ridge, which used Ambrose Bierce’s story of the same name as a theme, about a man who experiences his own hanging as an hallucinogenic journey.

In 1998 the group expanded to a four-piece with the addition of German Garfunkle on guitar and Barbara Yaga on flageolet and accordion (silly pseudonyms were de rigueur by now.) The artist had added screwdrivers to his repertoire, which he used in these new sessions to manhandle his guitar with. Some of the results were used as soundtracks to numerous of the artist’s films, and appeared on the album Beyond Context. “In 1999 we gave an ill-fated concert, which resulted in a reel-to-reel tape player burning out onstage, and a DJ drowning out the group with the more acceptable sound of Jungle records." They've been bone-idle ever since.

That's the Music section up to speed. Thank heaven that you didn't have to listen to any of it. Why not find something more interesting to do now ? (E.g. log off from the Internet and go for a walk).

Sound. Early Works. Wincolmlee began to monkey about with sound from an early age; for example, fascinated by the rain coming through his kitchen ceiling as a toddler, he would rearrange pots and pans to capture different dripping sounds. Until his Mother, no doubt questioning his sanity, reminded him that he did have some proper toys to play with.
At an age when he should have been 'chilling ' with his 'posse' (e.g. hanging about on street corners, smoking Woodbines, and claiming to know how to undo a girl's bra, etc) Wincolmlee was busying himself with the much more antisocial task of making tape loops, detuning radios and mixing togther experimental sound collages.What a waste.

For his homemade boxed-set album (Dustbin & String, 1991, right) he produced a 30-minute barrage of noise called, appropriately, 'The Headache Song'. This involved tape and distorted keyboard loops, radio feeds, and a species of percussion obtained by smashing whisky bottles (them having been consumed during the session) against microphones. Concerned neighbours thought that a 'domestic' was taking place, until weary parents had to explain that their workshy son thought he was some kind of artist.

Early example of Unprofitable Labour.

In 1996, largely under the unhealthy influence of Zorg Traveller, the duo produced 'Three Minute Warning', a series of pirate radio broadcasts informing consumers in High Street shops and in shopping centres that the nuclear apocalypse was upon them. Nobody battered an eyelid.

During his tenure at venues such as Hull Time-Based Arts and The Red Gallery (see section elsewhere), Wincolmlee was able to stage a number of sound-based performances, using his by now familiar assortment of cheap, found and knackered materials, and eschewing the need for expensive technological gadgets (because he couldn't afford any).

During Electric Dog Kennel Music (above) , the artist 'jammed' with a video projection of himself drawing dissonant noises from an electric guitar, using metal rods and screwdrivers. Like a lot of sound-performances, this went on for far too long. It was part of the Make/Believe 3-day festival, as was 'Notes from Underground'. "Making quiet art can be just as demonstrative as shouting from the rooftops", a blurb stated, to describe a piece involving the artist following a sequence of low notes on a cassette player with 'quiet echoes' live from his acoustic guitar.

Piece For Nietzscheian Quotation (1999, right) combined sounds manipulated on a tape recorder, with live actions, such as striking metal goblets to create gong sounds, and amplifying wax being dripped onto a metal tin. These activities were punctuated by tape-recorded readings about, and from, the philosopher Nietzsche. It probably wasn't that academically-useful to anybody studying the cantankerous old German fuss-pot at the time, though.

Around the same time Wincolmlee also produced work for the Unsound series of sound-art concerts and installations at the Hull School of Art. For the first of these, the artist presented 'Down Went Alice', which utilised three tape decks and loudspeakers placed on each of the three studio floors. Over a rising wall of noise, Alan Bennet reads from Alice In Wonderland, getting stuck on the phrase "Down went Alice"; this rises, alongside the electronic noise, into a cacaphony of voices repeating the same phrase at different speeds. Subsequent contributions included In The Last 24 Hours (the artist reading from a diary about just that), Clip-Clop, a part-live and part-recorded performance using handclapping in various time signatures, and a cover version of the Madonna song Material Girl.

Miscellaneous Projects. In 2001 Wincolmlee was commissioned to produce 'Occupations' for the Hart festival. The piece- a small CD player housed within a wooden cigar case- was a monologue ruminating about the history and the artefacts of the William Wilberforce Museum, where it was recorded at and exhibited.
Across 2002 the artist contributed to a number of radio broadcasts and events, for example: Watch Towers Open Fire (Hull Adelphi Club); Di-Fusion, a broadcast in Colorado, USA; the Movement to Performance festival in Finland; and a specially-produced piece, All Points North for the Baltimore-based art@radio station, curated by Steve Bradley.

During a 2-month residency at ArToll Labor in West Germany, Wincolmlee made a number of improvised music recordings and live performances with Espen Jensen (far left). Recordings of these sessions were later compiled onto a 2 CD set ('Gentle Stabs to the Eyebrow').

They attest, in crackly Dictaphone-Sound, to the duo's skills of improvisation through the manhandling of guitars, keyboards, pianos and metal bars. German beer, remember, tends to be stronger than our own. Duet for Piano, Organ, Percussion & Voice was a presentation of a 'score' by the mysterious Yorkshire experimental composer S.W.Holmes (more of whom later). This might have also involved plates and random pieces of cutlery in it- memory is an unreliable mistress at the best of times. The duo also formed an ad-hoc rock n' roll band, Dr. Death & The Patients, with drummer Marco Schoofs and bassist Rolf Gerritzen, although not entirely successfully (during one performance they were confronted onstage by rabid dogs and a small-town psychopath).

In April 2003 Wincolmlee produced three short sound pieces for the Lit-Arch digital media project, hosted at Hull Time-Based Arts and led by Ronald Fraser-Munro. As the project tied in with the city's Architecture Week, the artist re-imagined, through a series of monologues, the goings on behind the depot signs at the Fruit Market.
In June 2003 Wincolmlee dabbled in the murky waters of 'multimedia presentation' with The Law, a not entirely-serious 'self help CD Rom' for aspiring Performance Artists.
Through a number of key historical movements and theoretical concepts, Wincolmlee attempted to answer, amongst other things, "What on Earth does he think he's doing?" (see below)	Laying down 'The Law' in June 2003 at the Hull Time-Based Arts Performance festival of the same name. "Self-Help CD Rom for Performance Artists" (disclaimer enclosed)

After 'The Law' Wincolmlee then popped over to ArToll Labor as a guest of Klanglabor, a month-long symposium on sound and art, given by numerous international practitioners (including Barbara Hahn, Claus van Bebber, Helmut Lemke and RoN Schmidt).

For Wincolmlee this principally resulted in the 'Highly Strung' project, a CD and exhibition demonstrating a number of scratchbuilt instruments and the 4-track recordings that the artist had made from them (later broadcast in full on art@radio).

Illegal Media Radio. In October 1999 Wincolmlee curated and presented the first 'Illegal Media' radio show, as part of Hull Time-Based Arts' 'Toot' festival of sound-based art. It featured plays, spoken word pieces and experimental music from various contributors, and was aired in the UK, Germany and in Canada.

Following this, and working closely with Rob Cary, the show went global with Illegal Media Net Radio. The first in a regular series of shows was 'streamed' online (we think that's the right word) in August 2002. Sticking to the similar eclectic formula of the Toot show, items included a retrospective feature on the musician Graham Graham Beck, radio plays by the artist (see link elsewhere) and archive works by Marcel Duchamp, Gertrude Stein, Tristan Tzara and William Burroughs. Mr.Cary's thankless role was to do clever things to make the Internet 'go', and to manage the show's ever-growing online archives, whilst Wincolmlee largely concerned himself with programming and presenting the features (drinking red wine excessively throughout).

Bringing music and poetry (of sorts) to the masses: Illegal Media Net Radio.

Subsequent shows featured work by, amongst others, Paul Burwell, Ansuman Biswas, Viv Corringham, Brian Gilson, Brian Routh (formerly of 'The Kipper Kids'), artists from the two Klanglabor projects (see section above), an interview with Helmut Lemke, and Ashleigh Marsh's documentary series on Hull-based musicians, 'Hull On Earth'. One edition (show no.3, May 2003) was broadcast live from the Kingston Rowing Club and, health and safety hazards aside, blended pre-recorded material with live performances (which, for some reason, included a silent one). The Mute/Record project (see below) was also partly-commissioned to be broadcast as part of the 2004 Humber Mouth festival.

Miscellaneous Projects, pt.2. In April 2004 Wincolmlee was commissioned to produce an audio piece for 'Europe Week'. The finished result, accessible via Hull's Central Library, was 'Microcosm', a finely-edited journey encapsulating life aboard a ferry recorded between Hull and Amsterdam (nice work if you can get it).

Mute/Record was a CD and radio broadcast commissioned for the 2004 Humber Mouth festival, and produced by the artist with Rob Cary (see Illegal Media Radio section). Working with patients from a High Security Psychiatric Ward (of a kind that Wincolmlee himself would later become more familiar with), the duo produced, with music and sound effects, a series of short observational stories written by the patients. The project subsequently won a Koestler Foundation Award, presented in London.

Around the same time, the artist also contributed to The Zoo & Logical Times audio CD, edited by Corona Smith, a double set containing 45 tracks of audio art. Wincolmlee's feature was 'Woodstocks & Shares', which deftly blended wholesome advice for the would-be entrepreneur with further advice on how to score the best grass on the continent. Wincolmlee's work has also been featured on the Spine CD, edited by Harry Palmer.

In June 2004 Wincolmlee, along with Espen Jensen, singer Glynis Neslen, musician Graham Graham Beck and researcher Dave Ellis, were invited to present 'From the Margins of S.W.Holmes', an event at the Hull Screen cinema as part of the Humber Mouth festival. Through a series of archive recordings, Super 8 films and live performances, the company were able to illuminate Hull to as one of its most reclusive avant-garde composers, with his prelidiction for gramophones, English poetry and young German film-makers. Of course, the whole ruddy thing was a lie from start to finish, with Jensen and Wincolmlee being largely responsible for the so-called 'rare' recordings and scores. The Cads.

In October 2004 Wincolmlee produced 'When Walkmans Meet', a collaboration with Jeremy Black in Regina, Canada, in a 'mail-art' exhibition called 'Near & Far'; Jeremy produced a visual art installation in response to a short 'audio postcard' that Wincolmlee had recorded at and produced about Hull's markets, marina & river. A complimentary exhibition took place simultaneously at Hull Time-Based Arts.

In March 2005 Wincolmlee devised a travel-based audio suite for the Taxi Gallery (quite literally, a repossessed taxi converted into a gallery and parked in somebody's front garden in Cambridge). 'Moving Parts'- which had an initial 'dry run' at the IAS event 'Trial & Error' in Hull- combined experimental peices using car part sounds, with a promotional advert for an imaginary European superstore ('Hell Central'), and a one-man version of 'Victoria Station', Harold Pinter's short play about misunderstandings in the Taxi Cab game.

Never mind this soul-destroying, experimental Sound Art lark. Have you really not got anything better to do?

Visual Arts. Being a precocious little blighter, Wincolmlee began painting and drawing whilst his contemporaries were still preoccupied with inspecting their navals and learning how to master the Potty. His first painting was, as he put it at the time, 'a portrait of God', who appeared in his living room when he was four years old.
Subsequent hallucinations would colour his life (and his rather askew interpretation of it) ever since.

As a schoolboy he would waste (and occaisionally steal) many a crayon, drawing apocalyptic scenes of death, destruction, and of scary monsters with multiple limbs pulling off people's heads. Visits to a therapist did nothing to abate these tendencies. It was only when one of his English teachers recommended that he look at the work of Salvidor Dali and other Surrealist artists, did it help to refine his unworldly visions.

An early example of artwork, featuring volcanoes, blood, death, and dead monsters.

Unfit for conventional employment, Wincolmlee gravitated towards the only legal institution that would shelter him- namely, a local Art College, the traditional refuge for the doomed. On the first day of this venture a farmer took pot-shots at him with a gun for tresspassing on his field. Aside from evading the attentions of angry agriculturists, Wincolmlee also learnt the rudiments of colour theory, making collages, and how to drink rather excessively.

Morale Booster, 1991	Wardrobe In Sand, 1991	Thoughts Released From A Dead Man's Watch, 1991
Daddy, Slow Down, 1992	Two Women, 1992	World In Mass, 1992

Mr.Barnes gets his first exhibition in 1997. And doesn't he look smug about it?

Early Exhibitions. After much deliberation, slumming and signing-on, Wincolmlee finally had his first solo exhibition, 'Art In The Dark', at Hull Central Library. At this time the artist had a studio space provided by the Hull Art Circle, a benelovolent arrangement considering that his long-suffering parents were sick of the lines of paintings hanging out to dry in their living room, and of his general reluctance/inability to find a proper job.

At the time he worked as an archivist in the basement of the Ferens Art Gallery, which gave him plenty of time to knock out drawings and paintings of maniacal dolls and of alienated youths playing dominoes in sparsely-furnished rooms (see below).At the time it all seemed to make sense. On seeing his first show, his Supervisor at the gallery refused to give him a reference to attend Hull College of Art (this was during a period when the artist believed himself to be in direct contact with long-dead figures of the Italian Renaissance, which he wrote copious manifestos about).

Images from the exhibitions 'Art In The Dark' & 'The Robbers' (Hull Central Library, 1997).

A sequence of illustrations from the exhibition The House of All My Dreams (1997), a show which, unfortunately, coincided with the manager of the gallery involved committing suicide shortly afterwards.The pen and ink drawings navigated the viewer around an imaginary mansion of dubious moral fibre.

Red Gallery & Related Events. Wincolmlee did eventually attend his local Art School, largely on the strength of a number of experimental Super 8 films, his ready wit, his sharp suits, and his uncanny resemblance to 'a young Robert De Niro'. Not one to hang about, Wincolmlee became involved- eventually much to the chagrin of the then Committee- with The Red Gallery, where he staged a number of exhibitions and performance art spectacles. The earliest of these was a mixed-media show called Four Play (May 1998), featuring work by Wincolmlee, alongside fellow artists Andrew Robertson, Sarah Jones and Simon Stone. His contributions to the show were a series of paintings hung on washing lines, objects and props from recent live performances, and his looking rather dapper in his best suit on the opening night, after swallowing glass during a presentation called Esoterrorism.

The Histories of Van Hector (painting)

Abstract painting.

Make/Believe poster.

In March 1999 Wincolmlee, with contributions from the Hull School of Art (including considerable support from tutor George Saxon), staged 'Make/Believe', a 3-day extravaganza of films, installations and live performances at The Red Gallery, Hull Time-Based Arts and the Hull Screen cinema. This was to showcase work by the School's art students, alongside that of regional artists and international film-makers.

Local press deems Make/Believe slightly more newsworthy than wayward farm animal.

Amongst the proceedings were Dr. Roland Miller's durational performance 'Who Are We?' (during which he was heckled by drunks and reprimanded by a garage owner for chalking on his walls), Pippa Koszerek smearing blood on the gallery walls and fainting, Pete Watson describing salubrious activities with the aid of foodstuffs, gaffa tape and pornographic magazines, Harry Palmer amplifying, and then smashing eggs over, his head, Gareth Burt breaking lightbulbs and binding his hands with videotape during a piece called 'Catharsis', and Melissa Martin inviting the audience to chop her hair off (which they enthusiastically did).

Other artists featured were: David Priestman, Paul Peterson, Keith Durant, Paul Dean & Raymond McFee and Helen List, with music from Triple Helix, Chris Gladwin & Co., and The Satan's Lounge Band, and films by Kenneth Anger, Jack Smith and Andy Warhol. Naturally Wincolmlee couldn't resist giving a few performances of his own, too.

In October 1999 the artist staged an event called 'Illegal Media' at Hull Time-Based Arts, an evening of experimental music, film screenings, and live performances (including works by Triple Helix, Duplo, Pippa Koszerek, Susan Matthews, Paul Peterson, and Abductatronica). Working with Robert Cary, 'Illegal Media' later became a magazine publishing and internet radio venture (see sections elsewhere). Towards the end of 1999 Wincolmlee resumed tenancy at The Red Gallery, organising an exhibition featuring the work of Bill Becker and Geoff Green, staging the second 'Make/Believe' event and, with Espen Jensen and Pippa Koszerek, establishing 'The New Hull School of Art'. The second 'Make/Believe' event featured work by Louise Whorlow, Harry Palmer, Helen List, Dr. Roland Miller (who didn't get told off for chalking on garage walls this time), and the debut performance by Sarah Jones. At the same event Wincolmlee also presented 'The Destruction & Art Symposium', a performance which involved a slide-show about the notorious Viennese Aktionist group, nailing blocks of wood to his feet, slashing at his bandaged face with a knife, smashing bottles, and throwing bricks at the gallery wall (and at anyone who happened to get too close). This latter activity didn't fare too well with the gallery committee, who barred him from using the space shortly afterwards.

From 'Make/Believe#2'. Left to right: Dr.Roland Miller, Louise Whorlow and Sarah Jones.

Above: The New Hull School of Art exhibition. Below: A University representative defends knackering up the Hull School of Art on a local news programme.

What with bottle-smashing and knocking lumps out of walls by throwing bricks, Wincomlee accurately estimated that his tenure as temporary curator of The Red Gallery was reaching an end. Not to be outdone, he staged The New Hull School of Art with Pippa Koszerek, assisted by Espen Jensen and other chums from his University. Part protest, part exhibition, series of talks, ad-hoc publications and live events, The New Hull School of Art was an alternative to the official Hull School of Art, which was undergoing managerial jiggery-pokery at the time. Not overtly known for his politics, Wincolmlee nonetheless had something of a lark by turning the gallery into a 24hr studio and place for 'happenings', whilst sleeping, eating and screwing in the gallery over the period of a fortnight. As with many student protests it did bugger all to prevent the continuing demise of the city's Art School, but Pippa and Espen did sterling work in generating regional and national press about the experiment. The New Hull School of Art was subsequently developed by Pippa Koszerek as the 'IAS', or the Independent Art School, who have staged a number of conferences and exhibitions across the UK. Wincolmlee has participated in a number of their subsequent events, such as: a conference in Hull, Oct 2000; 'Models of Practice' in London, Feb 2001; 'Show & Tell' in Newcastle, Mar 2002; and exhibitions in Hull, 2005 ('Trial & Error', and a show at the Hull Central Library).

Miscellaneous Visual Arts Projects.

Across 1998 Wincolmlee worked as a Technical Assistant to Viennesse-based international sound artists Granular Synthesis, who were touring the UK with new -and very loud- multimedia live shows (including appearances at the Hull Ice Arena and at the Creem nightclub in Liverpool). His role involved setting up equipment, busting his ass lugging amps around, trying not to drop anything too expensive and, whilst at the Arena, buying the artists thick woollen socks (it was rock n' roll, but not as Wincolmlee necessarily envisioned it).

Wincolmlee has also worked as an Archivist at the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull, cataloguing rare periodicals, books & papers, which suited his somewhat obsessive-compulsive temperament (as visitors to this tedious site might well concur with).

'Past Orthodoxies', a sound installation, was exhibited at the 'Fusion' exhibition at Hull University in March 2004 (an earlier version had also been shown at the 54 Degrees North festival the previous year- see link). It used a 78rpm record player and records, a Kodak 'Box Brownie' camera, and old collections of bottletops and cigarette packets housed within the player.
Incorporating a CD of monologues about these objects, the installation was a reflection about them upon the formative memories of the artist: "A collection of rescued household items and childhood collections [...] to resurrect memories and to evoke nostalgic feeling." In other words, Wincolmlee never knows when to throw old rubbish away...

In 2004, alongside Jo Ray, Anthony Housman & Pippa Koszerek, the artist won an award for the national 'Artist's Access To Art Schools' scheme, whereby practicisng artists could develop and exhibit new work using their local Artschool facilities, to experiment with new materials or to develop existing work. Drawing from a series of photographs that he had taken along the industrial areas of the River Hull, the artist produced a series of lino-cut prints of the region (below), one of which was later used as the cover image for 'The Slab', a poetry anthology; his initial drawings made from the photographs were also published in his own poetry collection, 'Roofing', which was freely distributed during the exhibition.

In July 2005 Wincolmlee was commissioned by the Independent Art School to produce drawings and texts for an exhibition at Hull Central Library. He produced a work, 'Dossier On Two Rooms' (below), which explored the rooms and building in which he lived in his own dark and blackly-comic fashion.

In June 2003 he also produced a graphic art piece for Ian Killen's 'Self-Portraits' project (below, right), a series of artworks to be published as a book. Wincolmlee used the objects in his then-studio to produce a 'Vanitas' image, which depicted old postcards, books, his beloved Box Brownie camera, bottles of alcohol, and an ashtray. A good enough summary of the somewhat-lonely lifestyle of the artist secluded in his garret.

"Urban Tourism". From 2002 Wincolmlee produced a number of projects under the generic banner of 'Urban Tourism'. Using photography, and found and altered objects, the artist made a number of site-specific works which explored the peculiarities of his immediate environment- an attempt, as he put it during a number of summer workshops- to be 're-enchanted with the ordinary and the everyday.'

Throughout April 2002, on an abandoned strip of land on Hull Marina, he made a number of temporary sculptures from the industrial debris that was left lying around there. These were documented by Pippa Koszerek, and included constructing towers from truck tyres (above) and re-painting a derelict pier (left). Wincolmlee also documented works by Pippa at the same location, such as 'The Lawns' and 'An Intervention Into Old Territory'.

In June 2002 Wincolmlee contributed to the 'JourneyWeb' online book project curated by Ghanda Key, and which explored ideas of urban space, travel and notions of 'home'. The artist's contribution was a series of text-images, collected during a bicycle ride around Hull, which commented on some of the city's more unusual street names and street signs. Have a gander at them, here.

In August 2003 Wincolmlee participated, with over 50 other artists, in 'Artranspennine 03', curated by Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson (a series of performances, site-specific works and installations across the Transpennine region). Wincolmlee's contribution (below) was a set of photographs depicting a miniature 'folly', which incorporated baroque motifs and decorations, placed along the banks of the River Hull. Only God knows why, to be honest.

Over the summer of 2002 Wincolmlee led a number of workshops at Hull Time-Based Arts, combining talks and outdoor exercises relating to the themes of site-specific works, land art, exploring urban spaces, and of sculptures and objects made from found materials.

The House & Garden Exhibition. In late 2002 the artist was invited to be a Resident Artist at 'ArToll Labor' for two months, an artspace situated within the grounds of West Germany's largest psychiatric hospital. Whilst there he worked on a number of sound/music projects and shot the commissioned film 'Horn Came Always' (see relevant Film & Sound sections elsewhere). His principal project was, however, involvement in the expansive 'House & Garden Exhibition', a series of installations using found and recycled materials throughout the centre and its grounds.

These works were largely non-narrative, temporary environments to be explored by visitors, which utilised enclosed spaces, numerous rooms and the qualities of the building and its surroundings. 'Ground Control' (left) was a series of hammock-like structures, using netting and leaves, and which were suspended from the trees in the woods surrounding the ArToll gardens.

Above & Right: The artist employed a series of three locked (former) dormitory rooms to create a trio of works that filled each space, and which could only viewed through a small window in each door. These used netting, decaying leaves, cardboard boxes, wire fencing, cables, and lighting, offering intriguing 'peep hole' views to visitors. As with other exhibits in the show, the natural materials were collected from the woods surrounding the building, and the man-made objects were borrowed from the institution's recycling plant (dutifully disembled and returned after the exhibition, of course).

A large room was converted into a labyrinth (left), whereby visitors could progress down a darkened passageway in order to gain access to other parts of the exhibition. The passage became steadily more narrow and low (some visitors were unable to get through it entirely) and, through a series of peep holes, an installation could be viewed and heard: in a leafy enclosure a record player had been adapted to play a loop from a recording of Mozart's 'Jupiter' symphony constantly throughout the duration of the show.

'A Retired Philospher' (above) occupied a room on the second floor of ArToll. Using newspapers (some partailly-burnt) hung on washing lines, and an uncoiled typewriter ribbon, the viewer was led to a vignette on the roofspace, containing a suspended desk with a defunct typewriter and glowing red desklamp, with an abandoned office chair lying to one side. This part of the installation could also be viewed from outside in the garden. Other installations included an indoor turf maze (which rotted throughout the show, sprouting toadstools) and the film set that Wincolmlee had designed for 'Horn Came Always'. He also used recycled materials to transform a nearby derelict railway signal station (below) into a network of meshes and colourful suspended objects (made whilst being observed by curious German schoolchildren).

Photographs in this section by the artist and Roman Dahne.

54 Degrees North. In 2002 Wincolmlee was one of the founding members of 54 Degrees North, a group who have commissioned work from local, national, and international artists, and who have staged numerous exhibitions and events in Hull. Their biggest project (to date) was a month-long festival that ran throughout March 2003. This took took place at a variety of venues, such as gallery spaces (Red Gallery, Hull School of Art, Hull Time-Based Arts and The Ferens Art Gallery), film shows at the Hull Screen cinema, live events at The Lamp, The Welly Nightclub and The Hull Adelphi Club, and work in public places such as Hull's Indoor Market, the Princes Quay Shopping Centre, the Paragon Train Station, in Victoria Square, and on the Artic Corsair trawler. The main festival venue was at the former Hammond's Warehouse.

		The festival, which gained regional and national press coverage, was one of the biggest of its kind in the UK and incorporated indoor and outdoor exhibitions, film screenings, installations, live performances, interventions, seminars, and commissions for new works. Participating artists included: the Automated Noise Ensemble, Christine Bieler, Sabine Bieli, Stuart Bradshaw, Carlos Cortes, Helen Kilvington, Helmut Lemke, Paul Matosic, Goran Micevski, Ralf Nuhn, Philip Ryder, Ange Taggart, Ian Skoyles, Erwin Stache and Jana Winderen.
Wincolmlee, along with the rest of the group, was responsible for fund-raising, publicity, and the selecting and commissioning of artists. Having a dodgy spine by this time he wasn't so good at humping artwork and equipment about, but he did manage the festival bar with aplomb, and also gave a performance of his own during the event (see 'Mystery Tour').

In 2002 the group was commissioned to produce their own original artworks for an exhibition at various venues across the city called 'School's Out'. For this, Wincolmlee produced a series of large photographic prints called 'Secure Units' (below). Inkeeping with his 'Urban Tourism' works (see link), these images explored the Drypool and newly-developed Victoria Dock areas of the city, overlaying the photographs with graphics relating to architectural motifs relevant to each chosen location.

In 2004 the group was awarded funding to stage 'Platform 2' at a former parcel-sorting office adjacent to the Hull Paragon Station, producing original works that utilised the peculiarities of the building and which reflected on the nature of travel and transportation. Wincolmlee presented two installations. The first, 'Last of the Steam Powered Trains', was a sound-based piece which utilised battery-operated fans fitted with contact mics to create a fluctuating soundtrack of mechanical noises. 'Wash-Ups' was an installation and book project, based on a series of photographs that the artist had taken of numerous cultural figures seemingly 'washed up' in jars on the banks of North Ferriby. The installation rearranged these jars on a fabricated relif of the riverbank, and the accompanying booklet contained short biographies of the figures contained within them (which included, amongst others, August Strindberg, Friedrich Schiller, F.Scott Fitzgerald and George Gurdjieff).

That's enough larking about with jam-jars, bits of wire and Arts Funding for now. You, too, can try some of these things at home (if, for example, your Internet connection fails, or your boyfriend/girlfriend walks out on you.)

Film. Wincolmlee was first trusted with a video camera in the early 1990's, as a Media Production student at The Riley College of Performing Arts. His first attempts were short and surreal affairs, frequently edited in-camera, and now mostly lost due to the ravages of damp VHS cassette storage.

Above: Early animated collage.

Shortly into the Media Production course Wincolmlee began collaborating with fellow students (and future founders of 'Low Productions') Zorg Traveller, Nimrod Ping (not the MP), John Shit and Barbara Yaga, plus anyone else who could be conned into dressing up in silly hats and making fools of themselves in public. 'David's World' was one such example, a so-called comedy sketch show that was voted the worst thing aired during its first college TV broadcast. Wincolmlee & co. weren't about to give up. Subsequent films made at the college included The Numbered Days of Elvis Christ (a prophetic 'documentary' about an incompetant, alcohol-fueled artist, bearing no resemblance to Wincolmlee whatsoever), Nimrod Ping's 'A Sociological Nightmare', set in an evening class peopled by sociological misfits, and Zorg Traveller's 'Alienhated', a modestly-ambitious science fiction number filmed in an abandoned train yard.

The Numbered Days of Elvis Christ: unfortunately, they weren't.	David's World: an unpopular college sketch show.	Zorg Traveller not best pleased, as yet another of his films gets slated.

Low Films. After graduating (although 'degenerating' would be a more approriate description) Wincolmlee & Co., clearly lacking in business acumen, founded the accurately-titled Low Productions, a film-making and music empire of no fixed merit or income.. Largely the brain-child of Zorg Traveller, Low Productions made dozens of films throughout the 1990's, and had an equal amount of accidents whilst making them. You're not likely to have heard of any of them, though, as Low Productions were regularly barred from showing them at film festivals. Inkeeping with Low Film's general lack of commercial and creative progress, below, in no particular order, are some examples of why Further Education isn't necessarily a good idea.

Zacceus Zinetti, Zorg Traveller, Wincolmlee & Nimrod Ping: Too much time on their hands.

Kung Fu Heaven advertisement break.	Zorg gets abused on his own telly show.	Kung Fu Heaven (far left) was a martial arts spectacular (and advert for a fictitious brand of deodrant) that took place in the Afterlife or, more to the point, in Zorg's loft. The role of God was played by a stuffed monkey.
The whimsically-titled Four Shades of Shit (see image, above centre) was a series of daytime television shows of dubious merit, featuring a bizarre rendition by singer Dean Martin (not the real one, obviously), a rather vulgar husband and wife team loosely inspired by English institutions Richard & Judy, and some vicars taking lots of drugs.

Tranny Cops (right) was a rollicking police adventure, in which two rather unattractive transvestites, working for the Law Authorities, investigate the appearance of an alien wearing a bad silver shell suit and causing bother. Private agents Muddy & Skiddy (played by Zaceus Zinetti and Sir Dada) are also roped into the affair, but not before Muddy (or was it Skiddy?) defecates in a forest for professional purposes. Utter nonsense.

It looks like someone's snorting coke.	Semi-naked paint fight.	Two idiots point at the sky. For ages.
Pooh-pooing the necessity for rigorous scripts, Low Films also made an improvised series of what they called the 'Mondo' films. In Mondo Horizons (above) numerous badly-dressed halfwits fight, get covered in flour and paint, stood on and pushed over for no particular reason, other than they all seem to be as daft as each other. The rather unfortunately-titled Mondo Snufflove (subsequently rejected from numerous film festivals) was a pastiche of the television show 'The A-Team', and featured Nimrod Ping as Marlon Brando, circa 'The Godfather' era. Mondo Shrimper Delight was a documentary shown at the Hull Time-Based Arts Root festival, about a bunch of perverts carrying out foot fetish behaviour in Hull city centre.

Legion, filmed in an abandoned church (see right), was a horror film of sorts set in an apocalytic future peopled by rubbish zombies, violent homosexual renegades, vampire vicars and peddlars of disturbing pornography. Other films included Hitler's Iron Hymen Show (a 'Terry & June'-style sitcom starring Adolf Hitler), Babette's (about a tourette's sufferer who batters slugs with a rolling pin) and The Lighthouse People, an ill-fated foray into gay porn.

	Towards the end of the decade, Low Films released their feature-length masterpiece of trash, A Summer Holiday Called Deathcamp. This film followed the fortunes of local loser Michael Shatarse, a man of limited abilities (other than drinking heavily and beating up his wife) who only goes and wins the lottery. He invests his winnings into ressurrecting the acting career of pop singer Cliff Richard (Cliff having been previously committed to a lunatic asylum by his unfriendly Dalek parents).
Spending too much time and money in charity shops, Low Films were able to include a host of famous characters, such as the Sandmen from 'Star Wars', a foulmouthed incarnation of Buddy Holly, Lemmy from the group 'Motorhead' and The Fonz from 'Happy Days', albiet with a huge, furry detatchable penis.
A disasterous taxi ride.	Michael Shatarse hanging about in a public toilet.	Cliff being used as a draining board by his rotten Mother (also a Dalek).

Art House Films. From 1997 Wincolmlee drifted away from the scatology and the silly costumes of Low Films (probably not before time) and, inspired by the war-time documentaries of Humphrey Jennings, and the quasi-documentary styles of Patrick Kieller and John Smith, he produced a series of 'arthouse' films. Largely working alone, several of these focussed on filming objects, buildings and landscapes combined with a narrative soundtrack.

The first of these, The Waking Child, featured an armchair philosopher ruminating (rather incomprehensively, it has to be said) around the books in his library (by Schiller, Vasari, Neitzsche, and de Sade), and about various paintings and sculptures filmed at the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull. A pot-pourri of European High Art and images of British Colonialism are subsequently presented, although it is not altogether clear as to why. (Too much red wine drinking and excessive cigar smoking could be a possible explanation).

A Cleopatra sculpture by Henry Weekes.

Edwin Whitney-Smith: 'The Waking Child' (1911).

The Brass Agnostic (left) was another meandering documentary-style film, this time shot in the chapel and grounds of the Charterhouse, an almshouse in Hull, which the artist happened upon during a Situationist-inspired 'derive' (or, in plain English, wandering about the city armed with a video camera with no fixed intent).The soundtrack included chirpy rapport between characters from the 1961 film Whistle Down The Wind, about some children who mistake an escaped convict as being the Messiah ("Who's that fella?", "It's not a fella, it's Jesus.", "That ain't Jesus. Jesus wore a long dress.") Religiously ambiguous- the mind boggles.

Sheridan's Day (right) was a rather fetching piece of surrealist whimsy, narrated rather like a children's story, and based on a script that the artist had written in a telephone box in 1995. In it, Sheridan lives with his disfigured friend Acorn in a room containing a silver teapot, framed photographs of brains and blood transfusions, and an unexplained pair of human legs underneath a table.The pair have a number of catty verbal exchanges, and it is Acorn's duty to silence, by force, a crying baby in another part of the building. The top hat-wearing and rather pompous-looking Sheridan then attends a job interview, which he angrily storms out of, proclaiming himself to be 'a Lion Tamer'. On the way to the unsuccessful appointment he encounters a man in an alleyway injecting himself with excrement and Sheridan, the model of good citizenship, promptly kicks him into the gutter. Filmed at the Hull Y.P.I institute, Wincolmlee designed all the sets, props and costumes, played all the parts himself and composed a chirpy piano theme tune, probably because he wouldn't be able to explain the story to anyone else. Sheridan's Day, despite of (or possibly because of) it's dark undertones remains one of his more popular film works.

Der Steppenwolf (left), which quotes heavily from Herman Hesse's novel of the same name, involved an Edwardian loner exploring a former merchant's house, Blaydes House, on the banks of the River Hull (the building, uninhabited at the time, subsequently became a Maritime History College). Passages from the novel, largely about suicide, are read over a seemingly-unconnected array of images. Scenes of 'the Steppenwolf' nosing around the house are punctuated by footage appropriated (ok, stolen) from other sources, including the children's television animation 'Bagpuss', a 1965 film shot in Munich called 'Interlude' and, possibly contentiously, a Goebbels Nazi propaganda musical called 'Es Leughten Die Sterne' (or 'The Stars Are Shining' to you and me). The latter is scored, on the soundtrack, to both Beethoven's 6th Symphony and Shirley Bassey singing an upbeat cabaret number called 'On A Wonderful Day Like Today'. So it wasn't all doom and gloom. As ever with these sorts of things, it wasn't exactly apparent what point, if any, the artist was trying to make. Perhaps he just liked to dress up in posh houses.

Subroutine (right) was a rather loving depiction of the South Bank of the River Humber, shot in a documentary style later employed in films such as Respite, Soliloquy and Be My Baby. The film takes in the rather forlorn landscapes and architecture of small outposts such as Barrow New Haven, New Holland (once a thriving ferry terminal), Goxhill, and East Halton. The film depicted timber yards, dilapidated and abandoned boats, derelict buildings, and the corpses of dead sheep washed up on the riverbank. Over this (although recorded on a poor quality dictaphone, and thus almost inaudible) is a narration by the painter Bill Becker, who waxes lyrically about these images, concluding "Here we can breathe. We can live on the horizon." Despite the artist nearly being bitten by a dog whilst filming it, Subroutine was an otherwise gentle affair. It's good to get out and about.

"Mother Rain (left) was based on a short story, cut up and rearranged into nine arbitrary sections," Wincolmlee explains, whilst holding court at his local HellFire Club. It concerned a couple, suffering somewhat from a case of ennui, who dispassionately observe the activities of workmen in the courtyard below their apartment. Very 'French New Wave', except narrated in English, it was described by one critic as 'modernistic and apocalyptic." Which is nice.

Derelicts of Dialect (right) saw Wincolmlee collaborating once again with old school Low Films chums Zorg Traveller, Nimrod Ping and Zaceus Zinetti. Filmed at a disused printing works and at a public house, the film was a rather loose (and typically scatological) interpretation of the Heathcote Williams play 'The Local Stigmatic', about two dog track enthusiasts who, after losing money on a bet, befriend and then attack a television personality outside a pub. Very nice. Shot in an informal, hand-held style, in this improvised version it is a programmer of Commodore 64 computer games who becomes embroiled in the attentions of the two rather socially-inept gamblers. A somewhat inebriated deviation from Wincolmlee's 'arthouse' films, but nobody got seriously hurt.

In the same year (1999) Wincolmlee collaborated with Kristen Ronnevik, one of the actors from 'Mother Rain', on an adaptation of Goldilocks, shot on Super 8 stock. Using exaggerated acting styles and a heavy use of shadows and lighting, it was a conscious reference to early silent films, and was premiered at the Safe As Milk and Norwiegan National Film festivals. Returning to his documentary-and-narrative technique, Wincolmlee then embarked on Respite (see left and below). At 21 minutes long it was his longest solo film production to date, shot on the North Yorkshire Moors and at Whitby (although he did enlist a friend to help him man a boat during the river scenes). The film tells the story of a man referred to as only 'The Traveller', and of his journeys on foot, by steam train and by boat across the coastal landscape.

Respite was divided into a series of 'chapters' e.g. a train journey, spending time on the pier, exploring woods and streams, rowing on a river, a sequence filmed on a viaduct and, finally, trespassing in the grounds of an abbey. Along the way the narrator blends philosophical ruminations with references to the landscape, architecture and to nature: "Let it all come, whatever it is. I'll not shy away- if this is life, I'll take it hard on the chin," The Traveller announces, concluding, after twenty minutes of rambling reflections that, "As he is, man is not yet done." A kind of picturebook of latent romanticism and rudimentary existential angst, Respite paved the way for consequential high-falutin works. Blame Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Soliloquy (left) was a simarily philosophical, although more abstract, project. Assisted by photographer Christopher Spencer and shot in rather blotchy and bleached 16mm film stock, it combined shots of graveyards, ripples on water and street scenes with a series of meditative poems. Edited experimentally (partly because Wincolmlee, the silly sod, had over-exposed and fogged some of the original footage) the film fluctuated between negative and positive images of varying speeds, evoking a dream, a nostalgic memory, a rediscovered relic. Very quaint.

Be My Baby (no.1) was a chirpy 'pop video' based on the artist's home recording of The Ronettes' 1963 song of the same name. This vehicle to dubious musical talent ambiguously combined erotic images of Hell's Angels (from Kenneth Anger's film 'Scorpio Rising') and shots from a Briget Bardo movie. Nice.

Near to the belt-buckle.

Sing along with Wincolmlee.

Be My Baby (no.2), filmed on the Yorkshire Wolds and in France, took as its narrative lead extracts from an unfinished novel aborted some years ago by the artist (there was also a performance of the same name, and similar in content, given at The Red Gallery at around the same time). Over somewhat bleak images- e.g. damp winter woods, decaying bird corpses strung up from trees, a mausoleum secluded in a wood, rain falling into streams, etc- the narrator tells a tale of social alienation and sexual obsession. The film used music (such as 'Be My Baby' by The Ronettes, a Nocturne composed by Benjamin Britten, and Edison Lighthouse's 'Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes') to further this fragmentary tale of romantic inhibition and unrequited lust. The unfinished novel, equally as depressing in style, won't be available in good bookshops any time soon. Or ever.

Karlsruhe-Strasbourg-Paris-Hull, shot on location across the four European cities of the title, was similar to Respite, e.g. a documentary-style travelogue with a spoken narration soundtrack. The film, which follows a semi-autobiographical character and his philosophical ruminations around Europe, begins and ends in Wincolmlee's hometown of Hull.
The first of these Hull sequences focus on the empty shops and the run-down, vandalised properties of his then-neighbourhood; contributing to his growing alienation and depression, the artist then leaves the country to explore the more financially-solvent and opulent sights of art galleries, cathedrals, and townscapes in both France and Germany.

During this process he reflects on the nature of art, of travel and of the role of the creative artist within his or her society, lending much phraseology from Wincolmlee's own thesis of the time 'Against The Grain' (a hodge-podge of will-to-power, almost 'spiritually-fascistic' dogma). Over images of town squares, and footage shot at museums and at local landmarks, the artist talks about Dandyism, Romanticism, of 'pursuing extremes' and of a 'philosophy of the damned.' Along the way the film discusses (and uses) examples of architecture, music and aspects of urban violence; the artist at one point seems to side with the sociopathic protagonist from the film 'Taxi Driver'. Predating Wincolmlee's subsequent patterns of mania and depression, the forty-minute work concludes with positive descriptions of the artist's life in his hometown, a city that has been unable to shift him ever since. So all's well that ends well.

In 2002 Wincolmlee was commissioned to produce an experimental art film for the shop window of a branch of Waterstone's Booksellers, for the annual Humber Mouth literature festival. With assistance from Pippa Koszerek and Matthjias Muller, the artist produced an interpretation of Samuel Beckett's short text 'Horn Came Always', shot on the location at a former lunatic asylum in Germany- and which went down like a lead balloon with the purchasers of 'Harry Potter' books and the like at the store in question. In the same year, working with old-school Low Films cohort Zorg Traveller & Company, Wincolmlee scripted and worked on the short film 'Rocker', premiered at Hull's 2nd International Short Film Festival. It was a somewhat sordid and silly tale (but, this time, not too scatological) about a corrupt Judge, who imprisons wannabe-liberal members of the legal profession in his stately house.

In 2003 Wincolmlee participated in the Lit-Arch project. Alongside writer Steven Hall and assisted by project co-ordinator Ronlad Fraser-Munro, he produced short films about the architectural peculiarities (real or imagined) of urban environments.

Wincolmlee has also contributed voiceover work to both 'Ground Control' by French artist Ewen Chardronnet and to Aurolia Mihia's documentary 'The Valley of the Dreamers' (AKA 'Tal Der Traumer'); Wincolmlee was also part of a Humber Mouth project called 'Re:Write', in which four writers & artists were selected to rewrite and re-record the soundtrack to Jean Saphane Sauvauir's short 'Matalo: Kill Him', described as 'children in Mexico City having a face-off with the Devil', and which recieved its World Premiere in Hull.

In 2004 Wincolmlee was commissioned, alongside colleagues Paul Burwell and Rob Cary, to produce a version of Luigi Pirandello's play 'The Man With The Flower In His Mouth', for a special screening event in London to commemorate John Logi Baird's first experiments in television broadcasting. The play, also performed in other incarnations by the above company, centres around a man who inhabits cafes, latching onto strangers during the penultimate days of a terminal illness. The sets, filming and editing styles were conscientiously reminiscent of Logi Baird's style within the studio limitations of early television production. The film was presented at the Brunel Tower in Crystal Palace Park, as part of the 6,000 Chairs event. More recently Wincolmlee has acted in Ed Hunter's short and surreal film 'Alex in Wonderland' (shot at Bishop Burton College of Agriculture) and, with Jayne Wright, he has edited 'Freedom Rocks', a documentary of a live music and performance event organised by author Chaz Tempest, staged to commerate the life and work of Slave Trade abolitionist William Wilberforce. Wincolmlee has also been the subject of a documentary produced by Minna Hint, an artist from Estonia, who filmed an alcohol-and-pill-fueled Wincolmlee shortly after his release from a psychiatric hospital (we are assured, not altogether convincingly, that he's alright now...) I wouldn't stick around in this section any longer. None of these films will be coming to a cinema near you.

Literature. This section includes information on a variety of work relating to small publishing projects, playwriting, readings, and script-based performances (so it won't be just a load of words- nobody seems to have time for those alone anymore...)

Early Works & Miscelleneous Prose. In the early 1980's, influenced by the science fiction and fantasy art books edited by the likes of Stewart Cowley and Steven Eisler (which contained illustrations by artists such as Jim Burns, Angus McKee and Chris Moore) Wincolmlee- obviously lacking in too many friends at the time- would fritter away weekends and evenings in attempting to make similar books of his own (see below). These were produced using stationary offcuts from a local printing firm, who sometimes used to give him oddjobs at their works to do over the school holidays. These precocious (although not particularly effective) efforts were peopled by scientifically-implausible stories and pictures, depicting marauding alien beings, really big spaceships, and a plethora of werewolves and zombies wreaking havoc. Crayons were cheap, and therapy expensive. At least it kept him quiet.

Not so much progressing as moving sideways, from the mid 1980's the artist worked on (if 'work' is the right word) a series of short-lived and ill-fated comics, including 'The Silly Book', 'Pamf Magazine' (left), 'The Critic' and 'The Braindead Book' (of which there also exists an unreleased cassette of sketches written and recorded by the artist). At an age when most pimply adolescents were concerned with A-Level results and rubbing their genitals (or other peoples), Wincolmlee was inventing such 'comic' creations as 'Edward Friendly' (a sociopathic toddler), 'the Mutant Chickens', and 'Mr. & Mrs. Spazi-Fit' (sigh...)

Inspired by re-runs of TV shows such as 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' and 'Not Only But Also', these efforts, whilst failing to launch his career as an aspiring humourist did, however, amuse his chums who would otherwise have probably stolen his Raliegh Grifter bicycle and ran off with his football instead. Between 1992 and 1994 he also wrote and recorded similar sketches, sometimes working with collaborator Zorg Traveller (see music & film sections elsewhere).

Throughout the 1980's, whilst trying to emulate the artworks of Chris Foss and other Sci-Fi artists, Wincolmlee also produced numerous short prose and poetry; much of this was derivative (and even then, poorly) of the supernatural obsessions of Edgar Allen Poe and of E.E. 'Doc' Smith's sprawling science fiction 'space operas'.

'Mr. Chubs & The Others' being adapted & performed at Hull Truck Theatre, November 2003.

In general, fanciful nonsense about 'Alien Contact Teams' and The Undead. One of the more-promising (although incomplete) of these was 'Flies' (1989). Written as a radioscript, (and vaguely reminiscent of John Antrobus' & Spike Milligan's 'The Bed-Sitting Room', and the film 'The Village of the Damned'), it concerned two men marooned on a remote concrete platform, surviving on deliveries of food and on mind-numbing medication brought to them by unseen entities, who are clearly covering something up (you can probably imagine where this might have gone...) By the early 1990's Wincolmlee was producing a more-surreal species of prose (such as a story about a family who lived together in a bathtub, and who ate sandwiches made from dead skin), and stories filled with apocalyptic, nightmarish scenes (he had been going through a brief period of religious mania at the time, and had also discovered alcohol proper- always a bonus). Somewhat surprisingly, he was later able to adapt some of these, such as 'Mr Chubs & The Others' (1991) into bonafide performances pieces ('Mr. Chubs' concerning itself with an inhibited man who regards his soft toys as being his only 'real' friends- see left).

Between 1986 and 1992 the artist also worked on numerous graffiti art designs with Christy McKnight (is it literature? or is it art? who cares?), with whom he would occasionally help paint murals, one of which was a banner for a charity event at Hull Marina. They also worked together as Arts Workers for the Hull Irish Society (circa 1993/94) and in 1989 they had formed 'The Studio Crew' (a hip hop duo best left forgotten). Despite this, Christy went on to become something of a 'mean mutha' (we think that's right way of putting it) on the UK graffiti art scene.
During 1993 and 1994 Wincolmlee produced a number of largely ill-fated television and radio scripts, including a four-part TV series loosely based on 'The Avengers', about a lazy and penniless (but oddly-effective) urban do-gooder called 'Sponger', and a number of film storyboards for Low Productions early works (including 'Bread Stew', 'All In The Head' and 'The Catalyst'). Despite the outfit's leanings towards transvestism, scatology and foul language, these short and mainly visual scenarios actually made it into full production (which is more than can be said for the numerous other scripts that the artist touted elsewhere at the time- one actress didn't turn up on set because she was too busy modelling deckchairs, and because Wincolmlee had also forgotten to pay her). During the same period he also began work on a distopian graphic novel (see below) but, not for the first time in his dubious career, he failed to complete it. The world, no doubt, doesn't wait with baited breath.

From 1993 Wincolmlee attended Short Story & Fiction Writing classes and workshops at Hull College, led by Daphne Glazer. Several pieces from this period were published in the college's yearly anthology, 'Embryo'. Others, later revised, were published in small volumes by the artist's own 'Illegal Media' imprint (see link). The nature of these concise stories was described as being 'apocalyptic' and as belonging to the 'urban surreal'.

They focussed on rather alienated, singular characters stringently eking out cups of coffee in cheap cafes, being trapped in doomed relationships, misinterpreting local newspaper stories, stalking neighbours, cornering strangers in Public Houses, and failing to hold down regular employment (autobiographical? - not really). Part wittily fanciful and part downright gloomy, they were much informed by writers such as Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett (and, to a lesser extent, J.G.Ballard), and by the author's own latent misanthropic paranoia.

Wincolmlee's World of Writers:
"Unlike some pretentious scribblers," Wincolmlee says contempuously, "I don't pretend not to have any influences. No man is an island, and besides, books are relatively cheap," explains the former bookseller. "They go well with my other hobbies, such as chain-smoking, drinking too much coffee (and the rest), and sitting on my backside as much as possible. My early reading matter was largely science-fiction, roughly-speaking, and J.G.Ballard's descriptions of 'inner space' appealed from early on. In the early 1990's I began to enjoy work by European know-alls such as Hermann Hesse (for his spiritual meanderings) and Albert Camus (for his refutation of the same). J. K. Huysmans' 'Against Nature' (1884), about a wealthy, reclusive aesthete who doesn't get out much, was also an inspiration from the late 1990's: looking at the clutter and the dross on many of our city streets, you can hardly blame him for wanting to hide away sometimes."
"I've done a number of performances and films directly based on the work of Samuel Beckett. I frequently share his dim view of the world, although I can't match his wit. Not dissimilar in effect (although lacking the ribald humour), is Austrian Thomas Bernhard, whose spiralling prose sentences about illness, depression and suicide sum up a lot - probably too much - for me. Charles Jackson's 'The Lost Weekend' (1945) is a masterful portrayal of alcohol dependency. I've staggered, hungover, through that book (and Billy Wilder's film version of it) several times. I don't just like flights of fantasy, existential ponderings, tracts on futility, and depictions of the troubled, though - I also enjoy the lighter side of literature, particularly the comic writing of the Grossmiths' (e.g. 'Diary of a Nobody') and the gently satirical works of A. G. MacDonell (written before England had gone down the pan, so it was o.k. to poke fun at it)." Wincolmlee also has a soft spot for Enid Blyton, but this hasn't (as yet) become apparent in his own work.

Wincolmlee has continued to sporadically write and publish prose and poetry (magazine appearances include 'Schism', 'Ubique 3' and the online 'This-is-it Magazine'). In 2001 he was specifically commissioned to write for 'The River', a one-off newspaper, 40,000 of which were distributed across the UK and Europe by its editors Paul Burwell and Harry Palmer. Wincolmlee's contribution - 'Inland', written whilst on holiday in Scarborough - was also included in a slim volume of stories entitled 'The Cunard Line' (Feb 2002). In February 2003 Wincolmlee produced another slim volume, 'The School for Suicides', for a Mail Art project in the USA (the book used children's book illustrations to re-tell a schoolyard story, although the gallows humour didn't, apparently, fare too well over the water). Working from notebooks discovered by chance, in May 2003 the artist produced an article describing a number of his dreams (all based in the same part of the city) for Corona Smith's frequently fantastical and surreal 'Zoo & Logical Times' "nowspaper" (below left). The Shops Are Closed' and 'Fine-Tuning' (2003) were stand-alone prose publications, albiet given a limited print run (the usual financial constraints...). Written in a tone more than reminiscent of Thomas Bernhard's (see 'Writers' section, above), Fine-Tuning tells the rather gloomy tale of a man, driven neurotic and sick by urban life, who gradually becomes more withdrawn whilst staying with a friend at a health clinic. His deepening introversion is deepened by another of the clinic's residents, who is argumentative and authoritarian.

Drawing pictorial elements from an institution where the artist had worked in Germany, the story was completed in Luxembourg in August 2003. 'The Shops Are Closed', again completed during the same month, was based on fragments of a story first began in 1995. Equally as despairing of urban life, this story begins with a cynical protagonist trudging through a city-centre snowstorm, until he is whisked away to a remote village where he encounters 'The Museum of Modern Disasters', operated in a somewhat clandestine fashion by 'The Society of Illegal Citizens', a body of decadent poseurs and conspiracy theorists. In 2004, whilst participating in a residential scheme at The Hull School of Art, Wincolmlee produced a volume of poetry, 'Roofing' (far right), illustrated by the artist and distributed during a related exhibition.

Surely you must be tired of all this reading lark by now? Wincolmlee nodded off ages ago.

Script-writing & Plays.

From the mid 1990's the artist, whilst producing the work for his first exhibitions, also devoted his time (rather unprofitably, it must be said) to writing a number of scripts for TV, Radio and for the Stage. Most of these sank without a trace, although he was short-listed several times for the Woolwich Young Playwright's Award, invited to the BBC studios in 1995, and tirelessly entered his work in several schemes for aspiring scriptwriters (recieving an impressive backlog of rejection letters in the process). Heavily influenced by the then-unfashionable 'Absurdist' school (as epitomised by Arthur Adamov, Eugene Ionesco, Fernando Arrabal, etc), most of these efforts were awkwardly-executed, far-fetched tales of alienation and distopia, and littered with glaring typing errors on their coffee-stained pages. An early effort, 'SlagHeap' (1995), got the ball of misery rolling- a full-length stageplay about three ill-suited characters (a workshy youth, an embittered pensioner, and a former prostitute) who ceaselessly bicker with each other until - quite literally - their doomsday. 'KillJoy' (1994), one of his shortlisted works, concerned a group of youthful misfits who become embroiled in a cult society.

John Kirby's painting 'Man With a Rat': it inspired the artist's shortlisted 1996 radioplay of the same name.

		Whilst described as being a 'writer with an agenda', and being frequently congratulated for his precise and witty dialogue, critics found many of these attempts too derivative of the likes of Harold Pinter and Beckett ('like Waiting For Godot, without the Godot'), too fanciful ('civilisation collapsing and resorting to werewolf epidemics and witchcraft is compelling, but difficult to follow') or just plain unfeasible ('this author's interpretation of reality is askew').
Original cover artwork for two scripts: Left: KillJoy ('94). Right: The Office Drama ('95)

Other scripts include: 'Ivory Towers' (Aug '95), 'Provisions' (Dec '95, and privately produced by the artist in 2003), 'Caravan' (Aug '94, and revised twice in 1996), and 'The Secret Festival' (Feb '96) - all concerning themselves with Wincolmlee's stock-in-trade theme, of Orwellian societies that either decieve their subjects, or which collapse into states of disrepair under a resurgence of quasi-occult/religious beliefs. We think that he might have been a bit poorly at the time.

Despite possessing a file full of rejection letters from theatres and production companies from across the UK, Wincolmlee has been able to realise several of these scripted projects with a modicum of success (give or take some financial and technical constraints). In 1997 his radio play 'Living Quarters' (about a domestic 'slave and master' situation) recieved its broadcast premiere in London, alongside the incongruously-titled 'PooJar Because of Ant', a tale of trolls, mermaids and bent coppers devised and recorded with Zorg Traveller (with whom he also produced another radio work, 'Internal Affairs', and the sketch show 'Radio Battenburg', in the mid-1990's).
	Above: Two books to blame.

The artist has also made several original radio plays for Illegal Media Net Radio (see link), including: 'The Man Who Got Stuck' ( a script collaboration with Espen Jensen), 'A Good & Broken Wing' (revised in 2002, from a script once lost within the bowels of the BBC offices for several years), and 'The Weight of Winter' (rewritten in 2004, from a first draft from 1993). Parts were played by the artist and Graham Beck, Pippa Koszerek, Zorg Traveller and Jamie Morrison. With assistance from Rob Cary, Wincolmlee has also adapted the work of other European writers for Illegal Media productions, and for similar projects.

These include: Luigi Pirandello's 'The Man with the Flower In His Mouth' (2002), Martin Walser's 'Home Front' (2003) and, in 2005, Harold Pinter's 'Victoria Station'.

In June/July 2004 Wincolmlee was one of the principle actors in Aminah Borg-Luck's deliciously-titled radio play 'A Bastard's Tale', a witty, medieval-style tale whose production was commissioned for The Humber Mouth literature festival. Directed by Anna Pharoah and produced by Chris Gladwin, the cast included Chris Hill, Brian Hossack, Jonny Bates, Matty Kiviniemi, Charles Payne and Espen Jensen. The music was composed by Jez Riley. It was broadcast at an event at Ye Old Black Boy pub in Hull, and as a main feature on an Illegal Media radio broadcast during the festival.

Journalism, Reviews & Articles.

Believe it or not, Wincolmlee is a qualified journalist (which gives him a good excuse for hanging about in bars and eavesdropping). In the early-mid 1990's he provided music and cinema reviews, and articles on bands, for regional magazines such as 'Where?' (right) and 'Gig Central' (often under a dizzying variety of pseudonyms, such as 'Jack Silver' and 'Attention Barnaby' - sometimes to avoid upsetting bands that he would be gigging with at the same time, the sneaky sod). He was also a founding member of staff on 'The Lip', a short-lived magazine covering street culture (far right). In 2000, eschewing the need to present a final Degree Show, he submitted 'The Adventures of Pip' to his Art School library archive. This book summed up, through a series of articles and images, his Art School career over three years. It gave Wincolmlee Barnes' ego a rub to appear on the Art History shelves next to Francis Bacon.

Between 1999 and 2000 Wincolmlee had several articles published in 'Spine', an art zine devised by Harry Palmer and featuring numerous drawings, writings and photographs by local artists. He wrote articles on Dosteyevsky, Jean Paul Sartre, Theodor Adorno and the Marquis de Sade (the latter whimsically entitled 'The Marquis de Sade Was Never a Miser or a Motherfucker').

Several reviews for poetry events and performance art pieces have also been written for The Humber Mouth festival, Live Art Magazine (far left) and on numerous forums on the Internet. In 2002 an article on Rudolf Schwarzkogler, a member of the notorious performance group the Viennese Aktionists, was published in the American academic journal 'Reconstructions' (see link). In the same year an article discussing artistic map-making projects appeared in 'The Cutting Edge' (left), a publication edited by Dr. Ho Law and distributed through the Tate Galleries. Wincolmlee was subsequently invited to give a talk for the British Psychological Association. A piece on fetishism and art, based on an installation by Graham Beck, was featured in 'StillMag' in 2003.

In August 2003 Wincolmlee contributed text and artwork to three issues of 'Abweichende Linienfuhrung' (or 'Altered Route Planning'), a project devised by Epram. Designed to imitate the timetables of the Berlin tram system, where the booklets were distributed, these publications featured artwork and text relating to travel and transport. Wincolmlee's contribution was a series called 'What to do when Public Transport fails...' (below): his suggestions included 'Relax in the railway station', 'Set up a Victorian Bar outside the telephone box', and 'Perform bicycle stunts with a Loved One' (Wincolmlee isn't exactly hot on Health & Safety issues).

He has also given a number of public readings of his poetry and prose work. These include: an 'Embryo' book launch, June 1995; 'The Manson Monologues' at The George Hotel (2000); at the Northern Theatre during the 2001 Hart festival; poetry readings at The Sailmaker's Arms; during 'Nothing Ever Happens' at The Haworth Arms in 2004 (including Wincolmlee rapping 'He's The DJ, I'm The Rapper' by D.J. Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince); two appearances at 'Autobahn' at Ye Olde Black Boy (mainly lurid stories about prostitutes and the seedy inhabitants of a decadent hotel); and, at the New Adelphi Club, appearances at 'Pavlov's Dogs', an occasional cabaret event across 2005 and 2006 - which included a rendition of sketches by Derek & Clive (given with Espen Jensen), and 'Another Season in Hell' (accompanied by the musicians Jensen, Pete McPartlan & Chris Gladwin, a text describing Wincolmlee's escape from a hospital Resuscitation Unit after another bungled suicide attempt. Cheerful stuff...)

Between 2000 and 2005, working with designer and co-editor Rob Cary, Wincolmlee published and distributed the freely-available 'Illegal Media' magazine, which showcased original prose, articles, poetry and artwork.

Each edition was launched at an exhibition, event or festival and, despite finances (again...), the magazine has been distributed across the UK, and in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Canada, the USA and in Signapore. It featured new fiction from Wincolmlee, and from Steven Hall, Jamie Morrison, Mark Polland, Hannah Davey, A.N.Harvey, Peter Michael Jagger, John Paul Nicholas, 'Dr. Daniel Rabbit' and Christopher Spencer.
Poets featured included: Espen Jensen, Andrea Longstaff, Rob Davie, Jason Spencer, Suzanne Antrobus, Paul Bennett, Andy Fletcher, Dean Wilson, Derek Allsop, Vidar Evensen and Lisa Kowalska. Original artwork was supplied by Yol, Paul Burwell, Brian Gilson, Kate Argyle, Ethan Kruszka, Jo & Venus Cripps and Clare Thornton.

			There were also a variety of articles and essays discussing subjects as diverse as: publishing zines, the psychology of sailing, existentialism, suicide, fascism, male sexuality in fiction, 'dreamachines', abstract and experimental cinema, the literary 'cut-up' technique, English Hellfire clubs, the city of Amsterdam, pioneering computer music, the writers August Strindberg and Georges Perec, sound art, land art, intervention art, fetishism, and 'satanic' pornography.
Contributors to this eclectic lot included Wincolmlee, Thomas Pattison, Rob Cary, Trevor Batten and Philip Stanier. Occasionally the magazine had a specific theme (such as artworks inspired by interior spaces, or an issue dedicated to Brion Gysin, William Burroughs and the 'dreamachine'). The magazine ran for eleven issues, with occasional 'supplements' inbetween, and in 2002 Illegal Media also spread their tentacles into the world of internet radio broadcasting(see link). The magazine was entirely self-financed and self-marketed (an intentional strategy), although was also promoted by arts ventures locally such as The Red Gallery and during the Humber Mouth festivals.

From 1999 Wincolmlee was involved in a number of events organised by the I.A.S. ('Independent Art School'). The first of these was 'The New Hull School of Art' (see link), a student-led protest in which The Red Gallery was transformed into a temporary 'college', in response to managerial changes within the city's official School of Art. Alongside talks, exhibitions and performances, Wincolmlee also edited a magazine (right) with contributions from those involved in the project.
In 2000 he gave a talk during the IAS Conference, called 'Prelude for a Proposal for Something Else', which explored examples of student revolt and autonomous control in the 1960's. The transcipt of this was published in an accompanying volume, co-edited by the artist, alongside texts by other conference participants (including Helmut Lemke, Dr. Roland Miller, Duncan Reekie of the Exploding Cinema, Trevor Batten, Pavel Buchler, Stuart Bradshaw, Marcus Eisenmann, Tina Keane, The Invisible College and Monica Ross).
In February 2001 the I.A.S. staged 'Models of Practice' at the Dilston Grove artspace in South London. A series of talks and presentations were presented by artists, including Giles Perry, Tony Maas and Tien Woon of The Danger Museum. Wincolmlee's talk (called, curiously, 'Lack of Concentration Camps') discussed George Gurdjieff, Ivan Illich and the 'De-schooling' movement, 1960's Happenings, and Arte Povera, and was originally published in Canada as 'ArtSchool Confidential'.

'Show & Tell' (March 2002) took place at the Northern Arts Conference Rooms in Newcastle, and was co-hosted by the artists' collective 'Disco'. Similar in intent to 'Models of Practice', the 3-day event enabled a number of artists to demonstrate their current projects, including contributions from Duncan Wilson, Phil Ogg, Ray White, Anne Constantine and Asim Butt.. Wincolmlee discussed the ideas around some of his recent outdoor performance works, such as 'Free Games For May', and his series of interventions and photographs called 'Urban Tourism', in a talk entitled 'All Points North'.

Literature & Performance. Wincolmlee Barnes has deftly combined aspects of literature, performance and theatre through a number of projects over the past few years (either due to his interest in the 'multi-media arts', or because he spreads himself rather too thinly...)

	In 2001 he took part in 'In The Event of Emergency' at Dilston Grove (a former Methodist chapel) in South London. The project was organised by EmCo, whereby a number of artists lived, ate, drank and worked together in the building over the period of a week (the press likened it to being a kind of avant-garde variant of TV's 'Big Brother' series).
During the project Wincolmlee presented/lived 'Proust Syndrome': he converted a tent within the building into a writer's studio and became a writer-in-residence, swanning around in a silk dressing gown throughout and working on yet another of his as-yet unfinished novels. He also participated in a vodka-fuelled script-in-hand performance of Eugene Ionesco's play, 'Victims of Duty'.

Across 2002 the artist, working with collaborators from the Hull Kingston Rowing Club, presented a number of versions of Luigi Pirandello's short play 'The Man With The Flower In His Mouth' - as a simultaneous live performance and Internet TV broadcast at the club itself, as a radio play for Illegal Media Net Radio; then, in November, as a day-long run of performances in a cafe, commissioned for the Humber Mouth festival. In 2004 the piece was subsequently commissioned as a film for the 6,000 Chairs event in London (see link, elsewhere).

	In November 2004, again working with the Hull Kingston Rowing Club, the artist was commissioned to present 'Ibsen vs. Strindberg', in which the two great feuding Scandinavians were set head-in-head using their plays 'Ghosts' (1881 - adapted by Wincolmlee) and 'The Father' (1887 - adapted by Espen Jensen).	Photo: Jonny Bates.
These new adaptations took advantages of the staging and lighting possibilities of the club, and other actors and participants included: Paul Burwell, Robert Cary, Gisele Bone, Pippa Koszerek, Anna Pharoah & Glynis Neslen. A similar follow-up project, based on Knut Hamsun's 'Hunger' (1890) and Dostoyevksy's 'Notes From Underground' (1864) sadly failed to materialise the following year - largely due to Wincolmlee's then increasing mental instability (any bloody excuse...).

Between 2003 and 2005 the artist, working with the poets Andy Fletcher, Tony Petch and John Robinson, was commissioned to produce a number of literature-based performance and poetry revues for the Humber Mouth festival. These were really bloody good. 'In Other Words', something of a taster for later shows to come, was staged at The George Hotel in April 2003, and combined performance art, poetry and theatre. Using props - such as an overcoat, a model of a human spine, old boots, slabs of meat and a rabbit's skull - the artist presented 'Yes', a morbid piece based on the Thomas Bernhard novel of the same name. With Anthony Housman and Ray Wilkinson, a script-in-hand performance was given of Wincolmlee's 3-act absurdist drama 'The Distractions' (see link about his scriptwriting exploits).

The play was later performed at Hull Truck Theatre by the Test Tube Theatre Company, who subsequently toured it in London ("The easiest gig in my life," the artist comments: "All I had to do was sit at the front, looking smug and drinking whisky." Nice work if you can get it...)

In November 2003, again with Fletcher, Petch and Robinson, the artist presented 'The Upside-Down Show' at the Hull Truck Theatre. Wincolmlee's contributions were performance adaptations of prose works begun in the mid 1990's, including 'Mr. Chubs & The Others' and 'Letters To Superiors'; props, such as picnic baskets, soft toys, skulls and a painting of a riverbank, were incorporated into these tales of socially-alienated misanthropes - that's entertainment, folks (apparently).

'The Inside-Out Show' took place at The George Hotel in June 2004. The publicity stated: "...a playful programme of solo and group performances...car maintenance manuals and employee handbooks mined for their absurd content...poets employing an arsenal of toy instruments and Scottish and German accents...Wincolmlee attempting a 'Houdini-in-reverse' exercise ['The Extended Man', performance]...and the revival of audience-participation Surrrealist word games, in which local landmarks and everyday objects are assigned unusual and provocative roles."	Wincolmlee as compere during The Inside-Out Show.	Wincolmlee trying to gain some balance during 'The Extended Man'.
Throughout the event Wincolmlee acted as the host, adorned in a fake bushy moustache and top hat (reminiscent of the 'Liontamer' character that he played in his earlier film, 'Sheridan's Day' - see link). A splendid time was guarenteed - and had - by all, inspiring the team to present 'The Back & Forth Show'.

This took place at The Royal Station Hotel the following year (a somewhat regal venue considering the group's increasing vulgarity at the time). A packed programme of group and solo performances, the show tackled - 'through surreal goggles' and 'literary mangling' - the fast and loose themes of poverty, affluence and justice. The advertising promised, and duly delivered, 'word-games, horseplay, grunting, random texts, virgins, magazine ripping, fast cars, paranoia, one-upmanship, criminal investigations, an un-human orchestra, rapping, and live voting and tennis.' Alas, to date, this was the last jocular outing for these troublesome troubadours: shortly afterwards Wincolmlee was finally whisked off to a funny farm (a long time coming - perhaps he'd been wearing his top hat too tight?), where he was pumped full of drugs and told to rest for a while...

Current Wednesday 26th September 2007: "Off The Road" (no.2) at The New Adelphi Club. Following on from the success of the previous month's event, Urban Arts presents their 2nd Variety Show of music, poetry, theatre and performances. Wincolmlee will be appearing alongside a diverse billing of musicial, verbal and performative talent (other acts to include, amongst others, Jim Sorrow, Sam Jones, The Bad Apples, The James Dean Syndrome and poet Mike Watts). 8pm- 11pm, £3 entry. Boarding the bus trip to bedlam early is recommended, as last month's outing was standing room only! (P.S. And remember, it's a No Smoking venue now- by God, whatever next?) Wincolmlee has also begun working on a stageplay, 'My Dinner With Armin', with CrackTown's Silver Fox (don't expect a Broadway premiere at any time soon, though...); there are also vague rumours that The Plastic Underground might start messing about with each other again soon, too (although not sexually, mind...) As with all musical posers these days, they also have their own 'MySpace' page.

Well, that's it for Mr. Wincolmlee Barnes' archive for now. Hasn't he been wasting his life, rather? - but, then again, so have you by reading this. Well done, though, and thanks for dropping by. He's also got a rudimental - although not particularly rude or mental as yet - 'MySpace' site (http://www.myspace.com/wincolmlee) if you really are a glutton for punishment.

Thanks for popping by -
hope it wasn't too much of a disappointment.

Contents & Design (c) Philip Wincolmlee Barnes, Esq.
Credit where credit (or blame) is due. (Not credited for an image? Contact the old bugger and he'll try to rectify it).
Wanted: Got any images, old flyers, or lewd anecdotes that might be relevant to 'Wincolmlee's World'? Well, don't be shy- email him at [email protected] and we're sure that he could come to some sort of arrangement. Thank you.


'Wincolmlee's World' is supported by Urban Artz. Visit their site and have a ruddy good look at it.