Welsh artist, Lee John Phillips, is a man on a mission. For two years, he has been determinedly cataloguing every single item in his late grandfather’s shed… and he’s not even halfway done.
When he was fourteen, Lee learnt of his grandfather, Handel Jones’, death. Handel was extremely dear to him, and it was such a painful moment for Lee, he can still remember every detail of that day. “I can remember the clothes I was wearing that day”, says Lee, who’s now 35 years old, “I remember how it felt afterwards. It’s all very clear.”
Lee now lives and works as an artist in Narberth, Pembrokeshire, but he hails from the small mining town of Aberbargoed and grew up on the same street as his grandparents. Handel and Lee would see each other every day and they were extremely close. “He was a quiet and gentle man. He had a passion for collecting tools, salvaging and fixing everything he could.”
Handel manifested this passion in his shed, which left a big impression on Lee. The two of them could easily spend several hours in there, working on their various projects. This make-do and mend attitude was, according to Lee, very much a symptom of where and when Handel was raised. “These days, because everything is so instant, so disposable, people aren’t prepared to spend prolonged periods of time on any one task.”
Lee, however, is not one of these people. In a celebration of his grandfather, Lee has embarked on the odyssey of documenting and drawing the entirety of the shed. At his current pace, Lee estimates that the project could take him another five years. He has so far completed just over 4000 items and filled dozens of A4 sketchbooks.
Since Handel’s passing some twenty years ago, the shed has not been touched. Lee’s grandmother, Myrtle, who still lives in their house in Aberbargoed, has immortalised her husband’s memory in this makeshift mausoleum. “To say that she is protective of the shed is putting it lightly! She doesn’t like anyone going in there, not even family members.”
Lee understands and respects his granny’s connection to the shed, as it is one the he himself shares. As a result, he is treating each item he finds with equal attention and importance: every nut, every bolt, every screw, every rivet. He has devised four rules for himself:
- If the item can be picked up and doesn’t crumble if rubbed – draw it.
- If the packet/container is/has been opened, empty it, draw items, replace them, draw container full.
- If the packet/container has not been opened, it will not be, and drawn as found.
- If there are multiples of the same items – draw them all.
It’s these rules that have led to the absolute mountain of work that now faces Lee, as 50 drawings turned into 500, and 500 turned into 4000 with, what Lee estimates is, nearly 100,000 more to go.
What he finds in the shed is both exciting and emotional; it’s the items with Handel’s handwriting on them that “really kick [Lee] in the guts”. The emotional toll goes hand in hand with what Lee calls “psychological hard work.” Recently, he spent four days drawing the contents of a box of rivets; “There was a point midway through where I just got up, left the house and started walking laps around the village. I felt like I was in a trance.”
More than that, the repetitive nature of Lee’s work is having some serious physical effects on his health. “The strain on my hands causes intense pain when I try and sleep, I wake up looking like I’ve been fighting the pillows. I’ve had to start physiotherapy to solve the problem.”
Nevertheless, Lee says that he has never felt more artistically fulfilled. “I’ve always kind of been happy with my own company, quietly sitting in the corner to work. Sometimes my granny says: ‘My God! You’re just like your grandfather!’”
The Shed Project exhibition is currently in Oriel Yr Ardd, at the National Botanical Gardens of Wales and The Shed Project book is coming out in September 2016 from Laurence King publishers.
words BRYN KENTISH