“When I was a little boy I used to make monsters and dinosaurs out of junk, paper anything I could find. As I grew into my adolescent years I started painting small metal Dungeons and Dragons figures and then later Warhammer figures. In terms of simple self-gratification, I think it might have been the happiest time in my life.
Then, as I became a teenager it was made very clear to me through my peer network that this was not cool. Under fire from subtle and persistent comments I gave it up. I packed up my little creatures and pots of paint and got on with the normal things that were expected of me.
These days I make furniture. I made the information desk for the Museum of Childhood, and after doing this I ended up with mountains of weird shaped off cuts and so recently, from these, I started making moving toys, monsters and dinosaurs, as presents for my friend’s children. Maybe it was escapism, but I found this to be a lot more fun than the day to day work that I normally did at the workshop.
My ‘Monsters in the Pantry’ installation features three creatures having their own dinner party down in the Butler’s part of the house. The monsters live there quite happily as they have their own crockery on the shelves (this is made from Polymorph), and they are eating some food that was made by my Mum.”
Peter’s furniture designs are conceptual and beautiful. Recently experimenting with new materials such as polymorph and sugru, he creates objects that are striking, but also somehow friendly and human.