About
Melbourne based artist with extensive catalogue of music, video and visual art. Skilled maker in metals, keen eye for graphics. Lover of buildings and earth sciences. Born in Hull, England. Educated in Sydney NSW. Home studio in Coburg, Victoria.
Chip is a passionate music artist, writing and performing in genres from artpunk to ambient. His principal instrument is bass guitar though his studio features dozens of instruments collected over a thirty-year period. Many of his music and video compositions can be found here at chipwardale.com.
acoustic: http://www.chipwardale.com/lines-2/
dark ambient: http://www.chipwardale.com/guilt/
electronic: http://www.chipwardale.com/blu-move-2/
electronic/dance: http://www.chipwardale.com/fuck-that-hero/
punk: http://www.chipwardale.com/anti-hierarchy-dont-conform/
artpunk: http://www.chipwardale.com/nyuk-1-table-talk/
angular jazzrock: http://www.chipwardale.com/altered-landscapes-1/
Chip currently records dark ambient compositions such as Unperturbed, produces music and screen art for the performance duo Snapshot, and writes and performs with the post punk fusion band Rat Kangaroo
Chip wrote and performed in live art music/projection ensemble Sun-Bus-5, and collaborates with other artists often. Works by Sun-Bus-5 include The Light Show for 2012 Melbourne Fringe Festival (http://thelightshow.agarton.org/), The Super Slide Show at Hurstbridge Hall, the release of The Light Show audio CD and DVD, and ongoing recording projects. More detail on the Sun-Bus-5 page.
Chip performed and recorded music with Smitten Bridge, a band revolving around the songs of Andrew Garton. See the Smitten Bridge page.
Chip also collaborates with Paul Irving to create Autonomous Black, a performance/street art duo with a junkyard/metalshop sculptural aesthetic and a warped post industrial sonic sensibility. Info, video, and links on the Autonomous Black Page.
Chip has an ongoing visual arts practice currently focusing on a unique photo-assemlage process. Chipart is sequential, largely a simple series of personal observations and considerations distilled through graphic based imagery, or a reinterpretation of traditional patternmaking combined with a pop art and dadaesque style. Most pieces can be found on the walls of family and friends. Recent works include assemblages for Ampersand Gallery and Brunswick Gallery in Melbourne the video installation ‘7 music videos, 7 questions, and self-reflection’, made for The Darkness Within exhibition at Brunswick Gallery, and the video installation and sculptural performance platform The Perpetual Light Machine at Incinerator Gallery Melbourne (Autonomous Black). In 2021 Chip had several pieces at Cactus Room in Thornbury for the Dark FoMo event, Long Box, Mirror Cube and wall projections.
Chip has been working with experimental film and video techniques since 1982 and continues to produce live projection work and music video.
Chip has written and performed in various music groups since 1980, including Anti Hierarchy and Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk in Sydney (until 1985). Psilosybin, The Pirates, Harold Robbins Experience, Carousel, Tuelve, and Alchemy in Tasmania (until 2004). Much of this has been published and well documented, though the highest volume of commercial distribution would be the six CD releases recorded by Alchemy from 1996-2004. Chip has also written and recorded music for film and multimedia projects in Tasmania, been involved in sound design workshops for youth in Tasmania and Victoria, and been an active volunteer in the arts whenever the need arises.
Chip was President of Cygnet Arts Council, an executive member of Tasmanian Regional Arts and director of Cygnet Folk Festival (97-01).
Chip has studied graphics and fine art at Sydney Institute and Hobart Tafe, earth science at University of Tasmania, and completed his apprenticeship as a fitter and turner at Cockatoo Island shipyard in 1985. His father and grandfather also started their working lives in shipyards in Hull. Chip has a social background typical of most ‘Ten Pound Poms’.
Chip is a highly skilled metalworker and has much experience also in carpentry. Since 2007 Chip has worked as senior member of the mechanical department at Creature Technology Company, a global leader in high tech puppetry and animatronics. CTC have created the touring arena shows Walking With Dinosaurs in collaboration with BBC, and How To Train Your Dragon in collaboration with Dreamworks, a theatrical production of King Kong which opened at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne June 2013, theme park animatronics and other smaller projects.
Chip first entered heavy industry at 15, and has had a hand in there ever since. It informs his artistry in a profound and distinct way.
Other sites for music and video:
www.soundcloud.com/chipwardale
For Creature Technology Company: