In a grotesque groove
Simon Yexley and Alex Wall run Vunyal Dysmorphia, turning old records into artworks.
THOSE old enough to remember vinyl’s heyday will recall the excitement once held in the experience of buying a new record.
There were none of the modern downloading antics used so often today, instead music-lovers were blessed with a real, shiny disc to hold in their hands, to protect with life and limb against scratches, and to place tentatively beneath a delicate needle until strains of music crackled into life.
The popularity of vinyl may well have largely fallen victim to the ease of modern CDs and iPods, but two Northampton artists have decided to capture some of its nostalgia for posterity by using old records and turning them into artworks.
Old school friends Simon Yexley and Alex Wall, who live in Kingsthorpe, joined forces two years ago to start creating and selling vinyl art pieces, calling their work Vinyl Dysmorphia.
The self-taught artists, both aged 38, sell their work through the website www.vd-art.com and, from next month, will be joining the rank of artists to sell their pieces at Northampton’s A Most Marvellous Place to Shop in Abington Square.
A quick look at the website is enough to understand a little more about the weird and wonderful works being produced, including everything from heads and faces to crucifixes and paintings, all incorporating vinyl.
Simon, aged 38, said: “We both have full time jobs, I write legal reports and Alex drives a van, but we are both self-taught artists.
“We are both originally from Milton Keynes but went to the same school. We were in the same art class in sixth form and I bumped into Alex at a gig in Northampton 15 years later.
“I have always painted and sold artwork, and I draw as well. We both thought we could do something artistic with records.
“Initially I mounted some on some wood and painted a background, then I started cutting them into shapes.”
But what inspires the subjects used by Alex and Simon?
He continued: “Sometimes we will choose something to use because of its colour and size or what there is on the label. We make pieces we like, sometimes we will have an idea, start melting it and it will go another way.
“We are talking about doing some other stuff, such as a suit of armour.”
Although some collectors may well see the dismantling or melting of old vinyl records as sacrilege, Simon sees it as a rescue effort.
He explained: “We get a lot from landfill and tips, they just get chucked.
“I just think ‘what a waste,’ these things at one point meant so much to someone. A lot of people don’t have record players any more or records don’t work or are scratched, we say turn them into something.”
Simon said: “It is keeping it for posterity, a lot of things get damaged and decay. A lot of people think the melting of vinyl is sacrilege but I see it as conserving vinyl and I think Alex does as well. A lot of people love what we do and don’t even realise it is vinyl.”
The use of vinyl seems to fit in with the pair’s love of using unusual and recycled items to fit into pieces of art, in all forms.
Simon has even used fossilised sharks’ teeth in the past and is always looking for new and interesting materials to use in his pieces.
Simon said; “If I have something broken that is electrical, I will open it up. I use items that will get buried one day.”
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