(deviant)Artists: Daniel Lehan

During the first few days of the festival, Lehan promoted the event 
around the streets of Trollhatten, parading a Deviant Festival 
sandwich board.

I WANT - a collaborative work with artists participating in the 
Festival. Lehan invited each artist to make a cardboard sign 
announcing one thing that they wanted.
Lehan mounted each statement on the walls of the small house at the 
Pumphouse.

Lehan's work seeks audiences in non-gallery situations. Encounters, interactions and conversations ensue . . . . . Small hand printed cards, each one an invitation to participate in a prescribed creative act (ART RECIPE HAIKUS), are handed out during FRED, 2006. The captain of a local boat in Coniston responds by writing: 'It feels, The wheels, Might stick, So the trick, Is to lick, An oily, Pique Nique' An anonymous artist? Surely that grey polyester suit worn on a hot summer's day, singles him out amongst the milling throng of holidaymakers? And yes, posters in the locality declare him to be an artist, acknowledge him as he pursues his lonesome seaside trail, and he proffers his edible artwork, a gift from the artist, children mock and clamour. Writing his childhood memories (CHALKWALK), on pavements in Margate where he grew up, attracts the attention of passersby. While a gang of 'hoodies' prove to be charming and swap recollections, a woman berates him for squandering taxpayer's money. And for a forthcoming arts festival, a sandwich board, featuring a selection of tenderly hand painted dog stories gleaned from the local and national press (DOG TAILS) will be worn during a dog themed event, the point ... the point? ... to encourage benign canine behaviours. Lehan - A 'bob a job, odd job kind of artist.' Influences Anything, all are valid to maintain my creative juices. I used to acknowledge only the 'art ones' but now: a chat in the pub newspaper headlines and stories the light falling across a row of trees outside my flat reading and cooking a recipe from a weekend magazine article for friends knowing that John Cage would stop the Merce Cunningham Dance Company tour bus to forage for rare wild mushrooms and that the Dadaists drew letters of the alphabet one at a time out of a hat and read these as poems the mantle piece ornaments once belonging to my father Career path Paper-boy, choirboy, greengrocer's assistant, Margate chip shop and cafe worker, bakery worker, theatre usher, envelope stuffer, front of house manager, children's book author and illustrator, teacher.