Nice toy that doesn’t run any more.

This brio toy train belonged to Gabriel Young, and was apparently a favourite toy of his. But it didn’t want to run any more, despite his mother Louise’s attempts with different combinations of batteries. Maybe it had just derailed one time too many. Since Gabriel was very young I wanted to make sure before starting to work on the train, that he understood that it wouldn’t exactly be a toy after I was finished with it, but he seemed to have grasped the idea of sculpture about as well as many adults, and after getting it back he was very clear that it now belonged on the mantle piece and not in the toy chest. I still wanted to make a decidedly childish sculpture, and tried my best to relate to the imagination of a small boy when turning the train into The Last Train on Earth, driven at ferocious speed down the train tracks of the galaxy by a green alien. Did it make sense? For a child I hoped it did.

Bigger, better, faster.

Object no. 6