Artist's studio: Robin Tarbet

Robin's studio is in Bethnal Green in London's east end. The former industrial building was converted by artists into studios, the space carved up simply and effeciently into separate units.
Robin's work - in which architecture is an important theme - is a combination of three dimensional structures and film and his studio is bursting at the seams with interesting sculptures and the found materials and objects from which he makes them.
To see Robin's work visit his website and his recently launched blog

Robin's sculpture involves a lot of casting in various materials - concrete, plaster and resin - from found objects. These 'tower blocks', cast from computer casings, are rather outscaled by the concrete light bulb!


Concrete casts of various computer parts and circuit boards.











I think this concrete cast of a circuit board mounted on a larg plinth reads like a birds-eye view of an industrial park with classical pretensions! It's very interesting how Robin's sculptures transform these random bits of circuitry into architecture.





Circuit boards and floppy discs.










These are the kind of metal casings Robin uses as moulds for his casts.





The 'tower block' casts aren't just sculptures in their own right; Robin arranges them to create cityscapes which he then films from a mini train on rails.
I've borrowed the image below from his website to show the structures he makes but you can see the films on his blog - they are amazing !





These images are stills from a film recorded on a mini camera in the model train.
Coming soon on Robin's website and new blog will be some of the actual films he's shot. Impossible to believe that it isn't a real city going by!


In repetition, some of these bits of functional electronics create beautiful structures.














Robin and I agreed that this tower of floppy discs would be a brilliant design for a real tower block built from a combination of concrete and coloured glass - I'd love to see sculptors getting more involved in architecture.
Recently I came across a brilliant quote by the artist Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957) who said "Architecture is inhabited sculpture".








The communal space at the centre of the studios





Showing how the studios spaces are simply constructed within the shell of the building.

This was a great visit and especially interesting for me being a concrete and casting girl myself!

To find out more about Robin's work and his exhibitions in Britain and abroad check out his website Robin Tarbet.com
And visit his blog for pictures of his installations and to see his train videos! Fascinating work!