Bingbangbong.com

The Whaleback piece's shape and name come from the image of a large submerged form which is just about breaking the surface of the water as it moves forward.

It draws on the theme of proximity of the River Lagan to the Lyric Theatre and hints at there being much more mass and momentum below the surface than is apparent from the movement on visible plane. As such, it reflects in many ways on the arts and creativity in Northern Ireland where there are many working creatively, yet only a few break the surface. The use of rocks is symbolic to represent the effort that is required to make even a ripple. It is symbolic that the 'front' of the piece is pointing in the river's upstream direction

City of Ember

Bingbangbong was commissioned to create 'improbable' instruments for Tom Hanks' New Production City Of Ember. Bill Murray has just been confirmed as playing the Mayor and Johnny Depp is rumoured to be involved

The brief consisted of a great drawing by Will Simpson and a quick chat with Gil Kenan & the creative team. I went away and came up with a number of basic shapes to demonstrate some possible scale and filming considerations to Gil.

I engaged John Adams, instrument repairer as technician to work with me and help translate the designs to reality. He has done a brilliant job as you can see.

Our initial brief was to simply make instruments that look like they have been concocted by kids however after seeing the band of instruments together and with some of them actually making noises, Gil has now suggested that we make them functional. I wonder where we'll find a left handed upside down tuba player....

There have been some design changes to the instruments since these images were taken.