Out of office: Clive Seymour
Our ‘Out of office’ series uncovers the hidden talents of our incredibly creative team, taking a look at what they get up to when they’re not at work. In this edition, we speak to Project Architect turned Royal Academy exhibitor, Clive Seymour.
Following a serious bike accident in 2018, Clive was left with a broken and temporarily paralysed arm, requiring regular physiotherapy in order to help regain movement. He saw an opportunity to combine his love of creating with his rehabilitation and started buying a few small sets of Lego to construct as an activity to aid with the recovery of his hand. Whilst fiddly and frustrating at first, he soon found it helped to improve the dexterity and mobility in both his hand and wrist.
A sci-fi and fantasy fan, Clive would describe himself as a self-confessed Lego addict now, with a house so full of models it’s practically a live-in museum! In fact, they were a key talking point when his house was part of Open House in 2019.
Taking his love of Lego to the next level, Clive started to design his own models and artwork using a Lego CAD programme. One of these pieces was designed for this year’s Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, where the theme is ‘Climate’. His entry was accepted, and the room’s curator, David Mach, requested that Clive create a limited edition run of the artwork as he (quite rightly) thought it would be popular. Titled ‘The World is Fucked’, there were 13 editions, which sold out in the first week.
The artwork has been grabbing the attention of visitors and journalists alike, and has been mentioned by name in reviews of the exhibition from The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph to Time Out.
You can see Clive’s work alongside all the other amazing artworks at this year’s RA summer exhibition, which is on until 21st August 2022.
Two minute tour of the summer exhibition © Royal Academy of Arts via YouTube