This website displays the works of Manchester based artist, 'mistachesta'.
The name mistachesta was adopted some years ago, and had evolved through a number of variances of his real name, Colin Clarke. Initially his friends thought it appropriate to call him Col-chester, which was soon shortened to Chester. Then Mr Chester was favoured; and in the interests of aesthetic frippery the spelling was altered to how it appears today.
He pursued further education in Audio Engineering and Sound Reproduction Techniques at SSR in Manchester, qualifying as a sound engineer in 1999.
The urge to further his studies in creative arts led him to Hopwood Hall College in Rochdale where he undertook a foundation in Art and Design. As a result of his commitments to the course and the quality of the work he produced, he was rewarded with an accredited place on the Visual Art programme at the University of Salford. He graduated in 2003 with a 2:1 BA (Hons) in Visual Art. During the first year of his degree, Colin had added a solo exhibition to his experiences where he displayed ten paintings, wall sculptures and wood carvings. The majority of these works were purchased on the opening night and Colin was commissioned for further works.
It is possibly the time he spent in a German psychiatric hospital as Artist in Residence that evoked Colin's strongest and perhaps most controversial work. During his final year at the University of Salford he and a small group of students travelled to Bedburg-Hau with the intention of creating work in an unfamiliar environment, the hospital was entirely functional not to mention isolated and remote.
"My current work deals predominantly with issues relating to the self. It is the documentation and mapping of a journey highlighting the transition from ignorance to awareness, the self realisation of the 'introspector', becoming detached from governing influences. The work embraces the notion of disorder and misunderstanding and perhaps, also exudes the feeling of chaos and frustration."
- mistachesta, 2003.
