Our last Kick-About was a fantasia on some pretty big numbers; for example, the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field photograph’s million seconds of exposure reveal about 5500 galaxies! We’re celebrating a biggish number too this week – our 100th edition of The Kick-About! Congratulations to everyone who has participated in this fortnightly skirmish. It is one thing to have an idea, and a more difficult thing to give that idea life by willing it into being – by hook, by crook, by collage or by whatever means. On a personal note, I want to thank you all for your continuing company, your supportive words and lovely behind-the-scenes emails. It’s a bit mad, I suppose, making a new piece of work every two weeks, but there’s something life-affirming and very sanity-restoring too. Well done everyone and happy anniversary to you all!
Jordan Buckner
“I’m not sure if this is appropriate or creative at all, but I’ve been pissing about with some 3D scenes and this was the outcome. It all started as a warehouse of 100 objects – crafted beams, totems and columns that all represented the many wonderful people and things that come out of the Kick-About. I’m constantly amazed and surprised by all of the strange and enchanting things that everyone produces as part of this experiment. As the idea unfolded it turned into something a bit different – a trailer for your very own Kick-About HBO mini-series. Anyone who is as creative and encouraging as you, Phil (and the Kick-About community of artists) deserves a HBO Original series! So here’s a title sequence to get some seed funding haha. Many thanks for the inspiration and looking forward to watching more experiments unfold (and contributing when I can!).”
Charly Skilling
Marion Raper
“I did 2 years of Latin at school and about the only thing I can remember is the silly school kids rhyme: Caesar adsom iam forte/ Brutus aderat/ Caesar sic in omnibus/ Brutus sic inat. I really wish I had paid more attention now, especially when I am trying to work out some old inscription or motto. It’s amazing what the Romans did for us! Anyway, I digress (Latin gredi gress = walk). I began with a 10 by 10 grid, which I painstakingly filled in with 100 different coloured pieces of tissue. Then I added 100 different oddments of ribbon, sequins and material scraps. 100 magnifica opera artis completae. BENE FACTUM CONTRIBULATI MEI!”
Gary Thorne
“Funny how at times you begin things and by the end you’re none the wiser. What’s brilliant is The Kick About doesn’t judge. So, a hundred of this, a hundred of that, and as Bugs Bunny was want to remark “That’s all folks”. Reaching the KA 100-mark, is a very fine thing and certainly worthy of celebration – so I joyfully raise my glass to you Phil and to all you KA’ers and say ‘CHEERS, THAT’S NOT ALL FOLKS!’”
Phill Hosking
“Here’s my little offering for the 100th edition of the mighty Kick-About. Good opportunity to say ‘Jolly good work that man’ for keeping this going! With this one I took the concept of ‘Centum’ and decided to create a self portrait in Photoshop using 100 squares, using one hundred individual ways of representing the information within those squares. Riffing slightly on the work of Chuck Close, I saw this as a good opportunity to explore this method of looking at the macro via small and often detached decisions in the micro level.“
Jan Blake
“I’ve been having fun with my cousins in France on a very wet and windy day. Somehow that energy from the wind has driven the 100 zeros that we cut up into a curious melange.”
Kerfe Roig
“I did find 100 pennies and made, of course, a mandala. Then I did the same in collage by cutting out 100 dots in two ways–large ones of sky and sea, and small graduated cosmic ones. I like the way the pennies are in different states of wear and tear. One hundred, it turns out, is still a graspable number.
kblog.blog / methodtwomadness.wordpress.com
Francesca Maxwell
“I am sending you this for this 100th amazing Kickabout. It’s not quite done but it’ll have to do. I know how forgiving you guys are and I often use this platform for experimenting. So… I am into cells at the moment and the amazing miracle work they are doing in our body and in nature in general. Here I was thinking of them sweeping around the body and clearing and healing. I have chosen this topic for Centum because we use the word also to mean many and it has also the meaning of a complete cycle, of life in this case, and of celebration. All of it I see it as renewal, return to life and being reborn and transformed in an ever ending spiral.” Acrylic inks on watercolour paper, 41×31 cm.
Vanessa Clegg
“Lots of possibilities, but I chose to take a simple approach and go back to sums so 10X10 = 100! These are cyanotypes, some more experimental than others, that I did for a studio show called ‘Blue’. Sure we’ll get long days of heat and sun this summer so plans to push this way of printing further as it’s as complex as you want to make it and very much about process, which is what I love about it.”
vanessaclegg.co.uk / vanillaclegg
Phil Gomm
“So, let me tell you how all of this started… It began with me researching the Hecatoncheires – the hundred-handed giants of Greek mythology. Then, in classic Kick-About style, I leapt at once to acquiring a box of 100 latex gloves. That done, I got thinking about other hundred-limbed things, and arrived at centipedes, and probably because I’m reading Angela Carter’s Nights At The Circus (her novel about a woman who is part-swan), I decided I’d undergo a metamorphosis of my own… which is ultimately why I dressed myself in a sleeve of inflated rubber gloves and assumed the character of Le Mille-Pattes Humain – celebrated side-show entertainer of yesteryear.“
James Randall
“100 congrats to all you creatives participating for that long and sharing such wondrous works! Has certainly been a great ride so far – thank you so much Phil. I had a pic of ‘the big machine’ started when this KA call went out – it had a couple of circles that looked like they needed a one to make them centum compliant. This became the backup for a different Centum idea – another animation which involved learning how to make very bad vocal sampling. The video encountered many, many rendering issues and is not quite complete but because it was finally spat out in full its here with the backup image.”
Graeme Daly
“With it being the hundredth Kickabout, I decided to reflect upon all the previous artwork that I made. It is pure madness to see all the outputs from each Kickabout in a couple of images and is something to remember if I ever feel like I need to be doing more and shows how far I’ve come. I also decided to copy out rings of the collage similar to a singular ring denoting a year of life of a tree, with ten in total to make 100.”
@graemedalyart / vimeo.com/graemedaly / linkedin.com/in/graeme-daly / twitter.com/Graeme_Daly / gentlegiant.blog
For your consideration next time out, the artist Mainie Jellett. As ever, looking forward to it (and if you’re flagging a bit – haha – just a reminder that KA No. 104 is our 4 year anniversary, and so, once again, I’ll be asking you to pick your favourite response to one of this year’s prompts.
Red's Kingdom 
Leave a comment