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Churton Fairman, Courtesy Mandy Fairman-Dick
Exhibition
Darren Banks: The Raven
4 Dec 2014 – 26 Apr 2015
Event times
10am - 5pm Tuesday - Saturday, Sundays 12noon - 4pm
Closed Mondays and Bank Holidays
Cost of entry
Free
Address
- Gallery Square
- Walsall, WS2 8LG
- Walsall
- WS2 8LG
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- Walsall
Churton Fairman (1924 - 1997) - better known by his alias Mike Raven - had an extraordinary life. Starting out as an aspiring ballet dancer and photographer, he then became a pirate radio dj, pioneer of blues music and one of the first presenters on Radio One.
About
He was also a horror movie actor, starring alongside the like of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. In the 1970s he gave up his celebrity lifestyle and moved to Bodmin Moor in Cornwall to become a sheep farmer and wood carver. Fairman's sculpture, which explored religious themes, was exhibited alongside work by Henry Moore and Jacob Epstein, and was well received and collected during his lifetime, but since then has been all but forgotten.
Artist Darren Banks, who discovered he had a family connection to Churton Fairman and was intrigued by his life story, has recently created a body of work inspired by Fairman's legacy. Banks' practice examines the relationship between objects and film, so he was drawn to Fairman's work as both a sculptor and horror movie actor.
Our 2nd Floor Garman Ryan temporary exhibition space will host a new installation by Banks, which will reference Fairman, alongside works by Epstein and Gaudier-Brzeska in our collection.
