Toy Stories is a fascinating mishmash of conflicting art forms and topics. Part storytelling, part stand up, part art film and part social history, Chris Dobrowolski powers along his electrified track, but takes a few wrong turns along the way.
A whimsical journey along the Scalextric track of the life of an Essex artist.
Dobrowolski is an artist who lives on an Essex estate with his 92-year-old mother. His ‘studio’ is a shed and his primary medium is toys. He is a self-proclaimed ‘loser’ and, after touching upon the sweet family history of his parents’ meeting, he charts his origins as an artist with plenty of images projected to show us his progress. He started out by creating work out of rubbish that he found at the local wasteland. These pieces are impressive and bleak and his artwork only expands from there, including a project where he creates a boat out of driftwood found in the Humber in an attempt to escape Art College in Hull. His magnum opus is a community art project in a Bedfordshire library. Images are taken of locals in their vehicles and then transposed onto Scalextrix cars which are placed onto a track which runs around the edge of the entire library for locals to spectate (presumably on a day where the librarians weren’t telling everyone to ssh). The show then takes a right turn into a discussion of Nazism and fascist theory before ending with a return to the shed and Dobrowolski’s charming, absurd artwork.
The art here is certainly the star of the show. The Scalextric piece in particular is heart-warming, as we see a GoPro video of a car zooming around the track. It is a great example of community art reaching people it could never have expected to, i.e. Essex taxi drivers. A Beckettian piece of art created during the pandemic in a massive empty car park is hilariously bleak. Dobrowolski’s photographs displayed throughout are also immaculately composed. Despite him suggesting he’s not much of a performer, he has a guarded charm and is personable in his performance, especially as he deconstructs his own persona in a retelling of a talk he gave at an art school.
Where this piece veers slightly off the track is in its latter section, where a focus on Nazism and fascist theory undercuts the playful toy filled tone of the piece. It moves further away from the personal which made the earlier section of the piece so compelling and moves into a denser, less humorous mode. A Brazilian accent attempted in this section was also odd. The piece started to drag a little during this section - better structuring and a few cuts would have enabled this piece to flow far better without any traffic jams.
When the focus is on the toys and art, Toy Stories really sings as it dissects what it is to try to make a living as an artist, but the theory dense finale of this show proves to be a bit of a roadblock.
