John Mayson is an artist and educator living in Yorkshire and working across the UK.
He’s often known as ArtJohn, a name given to him by the local community whilst working as Artist in Residence at Manorfield Primary School in East London.
For two decades he has worked as an artist within education, arts and heritage organisations, charities and community settings leading workshops, CPD and creating original artworks.
Making a Racquet is a mixed media installation combining video and sculpture with a playful nod towards Horbury’s role in sporting culture, in particular its manufacturing of Tennis equipment with Slazenger.
“I wanted to create a sculpture that captured the kinetic energy of tennis… a ball being fired within a defined space, but instead of the white lines of the court, it would be in the human-scale dimensions of the telephone box… but I also wanted the sculpture to have an element of automation to reference the manufacturing processes of the 20th Century Slazenger factory that lived in Horbury. It needed to be fun, and unexpected, with a documented element of risk, chance or complete failure so that it mirrored the reason why we love sport.”