icecreamvanman
To become icecreamvanman William Alexander designed and built his own ice cream van from cardboard. It is powered by the artist from within, to make interventions into the spectacle of the everyday. By serving freshly made artist multiples from the van, icecreamvanman spreads a joy filled art viewing and buying experience. The buyer pays to witness the performance of it being served, for the memory of receiving and for a live object to take home. The freshly made ice cream sculpture is not edible but it is remarkably tempting, hence creating a paradox for the viewer/consumer. Though it cannot be tasted it can also never be finished. The design of the van is based on a 1960s model. Production of the van has taken an essentially Fordist object which itself has been modified once to turn it from motor car to ice cream van and taken it back a further step towards the handcraft of pre-Fordist production. This piece explores our small pleasures and disappointments, it is art about the art object in everyday life.
Bethnal Green : Teesedale Street to Vyner Street
The first run in 2009 was to Vyner Street from my studio in Teesedale street.
Here i am fixing the working rack and pinion steering system in place and slotting the pieces of the ice cream van together. Made almost entirely out of cardboard it had a few plasstic drainpipes for moveable parts, some rubber vynl around the wheels and the battery powered front lightsn
Trip to Tate
When planning and designing icecreamvanman, I had measured up the doors of the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. To my mind at the time this was the goal. To drive straight in and down the ramp. We parked up in a back road, constructed the van and off I tootled only to be followed by a blacked out Range Rover. A large bloke in orange got out and asked us what we doing ‘on their turf’. When I showed him it was all cardboard and the ice creams were just paint he let us be. Good fortune greeted us around every turn from then on and we finished the day with the planned descent into the Turbine Hall.
2010 New York streets
In 2010 the icecreamvanman went to New York. Working with the AAF a lot of joy was bought to the people of Midtown Manhattan that fine sunny day in May.
