'And When I'm A Man' is a life-size sculpture of the artist, Wayne Chisnall, as a twelve piece, pre-assembled, model kit. As well as being a self-portrait, the piece engages with the artist’s interest in nostalgia and childhood perceptions of adulthood (and the role that toys play in this). One important aspect of the piece is its colour. The artist chose to use the same colour as the green plastic soldiers that he used to play with as a child. But rather than go back and find examples of these toys to accurately match the colour, he chose a colour that matched his memory of it – recognising that the passage of time would have altered and exaggerated the memory of it and produced something far more lurid.
And When I’m a Man was produced in 1998 but apart from appearing in a couple of small shows around that time and a brief appearance in the film Scratch directed by Jakob Rørvik, the sculpture has sat in storage – until now, where it can be seen at Scream gallery’s States of Reverie exhibition in Mayfair, London. The show features two more pieces by Chisnall, Magnet and Book Tower II (Nostalgia For a Childhood That Wasn’t Mine), as well as work by six other up-coming artists.
This sculpture has now been sold and is in the collection of Dawood and Tanner, Mayfair, London.