I installed ‘Ali’ and ‘Devjani’ at The Phoenix Collegiate School in West Bromwich last Friday. The school used to be known as Menzies High, and it is where I went to school many years ago. As you can imagine it was a little strange to be back, especially installing my paintings, and I was struck how physically the place had changed so little. It was very difficult installing them as they had to be placed high up, and we had only had a limited choice of walls to choose from as lots of them contained asbestos. They are now in the reception near the Main Hall where we used to meet for Assemblies on Monday mornings.
The school was briefly well known for being featured in ‘Clockwise’, the film starring John Cleese. I remember when I was in my final year the school being descended upon by an enormous film crew and cast for weeks for what transpired to be only a brief five minutes at the opening of the film. You can see lots of my old school friends in this section set in the Main Hall. Sadly, my own appearance ended up on the cutting room floor. 
Afterwards, whenever the weather was too wet to be outdoors at lunchtimes, the school always crammed us all into the hall to watch the film again. I’ve never seen it all the way through though. I got bored after that first five minutes.
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