A second Chanel man.

The first Chanel man sold, and I was asked whether I would consider making another one. Unlike the mirrors, clocks or even some wooden figures (e.g. Gustav) that I make, it didn't seem right to make a double. I decided instead to go back to what I wanted to say with the piece, and wondered whether I could say it in a slightly different way.

The Chanel man is actually based on an old man I once saw emerging from the commission buildings on the corner of Gertrude and Brunswick Streets in Fitzroy, one of Melbourne's oldest and most colourful suburbs. He looked simultaneously scary and sad, and was certainly the last person you might expect to be dressed in 'Chanel'. (The inverted commas are there because the t-shirt was very likely a fake.) The image of him has stayed with me ever since, and even though I don't remember his face clearly, there a feeling that I remember and want to evoke.

I do remember that he had a cigarette hanging from his mouth -- I have left it out in both versions because I don't think that either need it.

I wonder what the old man in Fitzroy thought of the t-shirt he was wearing that day, and indeed whether it meant anything to him at all, other than that it covered him.