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Glen Ogden

@glenthemaker

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CEO of The Pointless Labour Company 🧱
Gilbert Bayes Award 2026 @royal_sculptors
Janitor @assembly_leeds
✉️: [email protected]

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A Lil’ time lapse of my latest performance piece Lay & Unlay (2022), the final piece of the puzzle in the Non-essential Workers live showcase.

The performance night was the first showcase of this work to any living soul and received really positive feedback.

Still sorting through all the photos and footage from the night so will post soon 👌

* Lay & Unlay (2022) catches up with our labour some protagonist a year later on from the events of After You (2021), As life returns to somewhat of a normality and the governments insistence of living with the virus comes into play, the need for Sheets4U has diminished like a weeks paycheck down the pub…

To our protagonists dismay, they’ve been made redundant with a tactical company downsize. As the burden of searching for work falls upon them once more; They hear of the national retraining scheme and enroll on a bricklaying course. Here we see how the training is paying off...*

#contempory #uptheworkers #digital #repetition #document #promo #work #nonessentialworkers #performance #art #performancenight #show #debut #showcase #pointlesslabourcompany #glenthemaker taken in Assembly House by @glenthemaker

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4 years ago

What a week! 🧱

Last week I had the pleasure of being a part of the @bba.prizes exhibition over in Berlin. We performed Sandshifters (2020) and Lay/Unlay (2022) four times each and our bodies are feeling it now we’re home, but oh boy what a thrill!

A huge thankyou to everyone @bba.gallery for giving the boyos a chance to shine and an equally huge thank you to my team for always being on call to shift some sand!

Big love ❤️

Archie Brooks
@archiebrooksart
Jacob Talbott
@scruffsart
Tom Newhouse
@tom.newhouse

It’s official… The pointless labour company have gone international!

To see the performances check out my YouTube 👇
https://youtube.com/@glenthemaker

#groupshow #berlinart #berlinlovers #youngartist #berlinartscene #gallery #modernart #artoftheday #fineart #artwork #labourers #emergingartists #labourday #exhibition #emergingartist #performanceartist #performance #photography #artist #performingarts #contemporaryart #performancearts #performer #performanceart taken in Berlin, Germany by @glenthemaker

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3 years ago

Playful lil’ Outcome from a session with @tom.newhouse , and a cheeky bit of promo for my latest performance that I’ll be dropping in a few weeks. Stay tuned!

#contempory #uptheworkers #digital #repetition #document #promo #glenthemaker #pointlesslabourcompany taken in Assembly House by @glenthemaker

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5 years ago

Had a gorgeous time exhibiting at the Old Parcels Office, Scarborough, for the Aftermath 2026 exhibition, curated by the legend @theartistrobmoore

A pleasure to exhibit alongside so many incredible artists - and my first time having a painting in a show. Let’s go!!

Spent a lot of time designing and building a three-part plinth to contain the oil generated from Would You Like Fries With That? 2.0. It didn’t quite go to plan, which definitely sucks, but that’s all part of the process…

#uksculpture  #ukartists  #artexhibition  #timeandlabor  #glenthemaker taken in Old Parcels Office Artspace by @glenthemaker

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4 months ago

Would You Like Fries With That? 2.0: Production Footage

After spending hundreds of hours with a single piece, I wanted to share a glimpse into how this sculpture came together. It’s impossible to condense the entire journey into a handful of short clips, but these videos capture some of the key moments, mistakes, redesigns, and small wins along the way!

2 - The first cuts. Mapping out the structure using 38.1mm square bar and building the basic triangular form. Countless hours on the chop saw trying to get every angle right.

3 - My first introduction to TIG welding. Building the trough became one of the longest and most technically challenging parts of the project. Getting it watertight involved a lot of welding, grinding back, and starting again.

4 - The central sprocket went through several redesigns before arriving at its final form. Stronger, cleaner, and far better than the original concept - result!

5 - Refining the framework. After welding came hours of sanding and finishing in an attempt to achieve that industrial stainless-steel aesthetic found in food production environments. Close enough, although the battle with rust continues.

6 - The first successful motor housing. Powered by an electric scooter motor, I designed a rail system that allowed chain tension to be adjusted during installation. Combined with the bearings, it ran far smoother than I ever expected.

7 - Possibly the most satisfying moment of the entire build: the speed controller sliding perfectly into place.

8 - Components finally coming together. The first full test of the drive system with the central hub attached. At this point the sculpture started to feel real.

9 - Baskets attached and the first complete test run. A major milestone. The speed was considerably faster than expected, but seeing everything move together for the first time made the months of work worthwhile.

If you’d like to see more of the production process, problem-solving, and design development, there are plenty more clips over on YouTube. I’ve used that space as an archive of ideas, experiments, failures, and solutions encountered throughout the making of the piece.

#sculpturestudio
#artdocumentation taken in Leeds Arts University by @glenthemaker

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4 months ago

Sand Timer Conveyor (2025)
Currently on show as part of OPO Open 2026.

Installed in the Old Parcels Office - a former railway building right beside Scarborough station - the space carries its own sense of movement, waiting, and transit, which felt fitting for the work.

The exhibition runs until the 8th of March and is well worth a visit!! Big thanks to @oldparcelsofficeartspace for having me.

Image 3 credit: @oldparcelsofficeartspace

#kineticsculpture
#installationart
#contemporaryart
#ukartists
#openexhibition taken in Old Parcels Office, Scarborough Railway Station by @glenthemaker

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8 months ago

End of Year Review - Was a good one 👌
 A year of making things happen. Here are some highlights from projects, exhibitions, and all the other fun arty bits.

2: WYLFWT 2.0 on shoot day - marking the end of my residency at Leeds Arts University and the completion of my first kinetic sculpture.

3: Running workshop sessions in Bradford throughout the year, translating lived experiences of work and life into some genuinely brilliant sculptures.

4: Fire Exit (2025) - a response to starting my role at Assembly House last year. Putting up endless fire-exit signage around the studio eventually led to this work.

5: A selection of artist shots by James that didn’t quite squeeze in elsewhere. Every great photo this year has come from this legend. @cliffordjamesfilm

6: Sand Timer Conveyor (2025) standing tall on its new plinth. An absolute puzzle to get here, but well worth it.

7: Seeing great art with even better people - mostly their work, shown in some brilliant exhibitions.

8: Knights of the Round Table (2025) finally finished after being in progress for over two years.

9: Two amazing weeks installing the Nisbet Road Tailor Shop exhibition with Archie Brooks - met great people and properly grafted for the first time this year.

10: Ian modelling the drone beautifully at Kirkstall Art Trail. Possibly the wettest day imaginable for an outdoor performance with the Pointless Labour Company.

11: York St John’s year-long residency kicked off in October. Excited to dive into the facilities and make two new kinetic sculptures this year - let’s gooo!

12: The AA2A York St John’s cohort, ready for a year of making!!

13: Deep in the workshop working on WYLFWT? 2.0 - pre-weld all clamped and ready to go. Missing that fixture table… just want it back 😭

Big plans for 2026.
 Very exciting times at GlenTheMaker HQ — see you soon, and love to all ❤️

📸 Images 1,5,6,8 - @cliffordjamesfilm

#artprocess #workinprogress #makerculture #sculpturestudio #glenthemaker taken in Assembly House by @glenthemaker

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10 months ago

Sand Timer Conveyor (2025)
 The conveyor is back in action at Sand Shifters HQ - seven sand timers tipping, resetting, repeating in a constant loop. Fragile rhythms play against cold steel, echoing the balance between working to live and resting only to work again.

Each timer pauses briefly at the top before falling forward - a tiny moment of recharge before the cycle begins again. The piece draws from my years in a 24/7 McDonald’s, where staffing felt like a constant “changing of the guards” and the machine never truly stopped.

Recharge, refuel, deplete, repeat - time moves on, even when the cycle looks the same. And still, every grain falls differently.

Filmed by: @cliffordjamesfilm

#PerformanceArt #TimeAndLabor #ConceptualArt #ArtAndTime #glenthemaker taken in Assembly House by @glenthemaker

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10 months ago

Sand Shifters (2020)
 Finally got round to editing all the footage from Sand Shifters at the BBA Artist Prize 2023 - only took me 2+ years! Five years on, this piece is still shaping everything I make.

Sand Shifters looks at humans as tools and the cycles of work - four performers repeating endurance-based tasks until their movements feel mechanical. A reminder of the routines we fall into, and the value we place on our time.

#performanceart #conceptualart #timeandlabor #artandtime #glenthemaker taken in Berlin, Germany by @glenthemaker

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10 months ago

This week we are delighted to welcome the new cohort of Gilbert Bayes Award winners who will join the Society in 2026! Meet Glen Ogden GBA @glenthemaker

Glen Ogden’s work explores the cyclical and labor-intensive essence of human effort, using sculpture and performance to critique societal constructs surrounding work, value, and identity. Drawing from personal experiences, his practice reframes mundane labor as symbolic and monumental, highlighting its transformative yet often futile rhythms.

Through meticulously crafted works - ranging from durational performances to large-scale mechanical sculptures - he juxtaposes endurance and humor to interrogate hyperconsumption, power dynamics, and the commodification of time. He employs tools, rhythmic actions, and industrial aesthetics to blur the boundaries between creation and deconstruction, highlighting the overlooked physical and psychological costs of labor in a work-oriented society.

Images courtesy of the artist ©️ James Clifford, Jacob Talbot

#gilbertbayesaward
#gba2026
#emergingsculptors
#GlenOgden by @glenthemaker

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10 months ago

Knights of the Round Table (Oil on canvas, 180 x 180 cm)

Twelve modern-day knights, suited up and armed with card readers. A dinner table becomes a clock face, receipts piling at its centre. Knight of the Round Table reframes chivalry for the age of credit and time.

Photography by @cliffordjamesfilm

Twelve suited men - finance bros, city workers, modern-day knights - gather round a dinner table, locked in the final act of settling the bill. Each grips a card reader with a golden credit card slotted inside, their receipt rolls spilling out and tangling together in a pile at the centre. Seen from above, the scene resembles old poker table paintings and the symmetry of a clock face - twelve figures frozen in ritual, where time and money coil into one.

Painted in bold, cartoon-like colour blocks, the scene shifts from a darkened outer ring to a spotlighted centre, heightening its theatricality.

Tradition and modernity clash here: old codes of nobility reimagined as credit, receipts, and endless transactions. Nobility not by bloodline, but by time, value, and the endless cycle of paying the bill. A satirical yet reverent take on the 21st-century knight - suited, card reader in hand - where receipts replace swords and value is measured in transactions.

#OilPainting #PaintingOfTheDay #ContemporaryPainting #PaintingArt #ModernPainting #TimeAndLabor #ConceptualArt #ArtAndTime #ValueOfTime #TimeIsMoney #ArtAndWork #EnduranceArt #ProcessArt #StudioLife #ArtistsOnInstagram #WorkInProgress #EmergingArtist #FineArt #ContemporaryArt #UKArtist #BritishArt #LeedsArtist #YorkshireArt #LeedsArtsScene #glenthemaker taken in Assembly House by @glenthemaker

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a year ago

From The Archive 2.0 ⏳

A look back at some key works and moments from the past 5 years - always nice to reflect and see the constants that still run through what I’m making today!

Image 1: Middlesbrough Art Week 2023 - A beautiful shot by @jacobtalbotart
 Image 2: Live Feed (2023) - A bronze-cast hollowed CCTV camera turned into a continuous water feature. Being re-visited next year!
 Image 3: Man With A Van - A nod to my brother’s time as an Amazon delivery driver.
 Image 4: Would You Like Fries With That (2020) - On display at Sunny Bank Mills Ones To Watch 2021.
 Image 5: Lay/Unlay (2022) - Shown in Berlin with the Boyos!
 Image 6: Gears (2023) - A bronze sprocket re-purposed as a cigarette ashtray. Probably sums me up perfectly!
 Image 7: Parachute (2020) - My favourite outcome from my Covid body of work. Drawing comparisons between parachutes slowing momentum in freefall and PPE slowing the spread during the pandemic.
 Image 8: Sand Shifters (2020) - In full swing at the BBA Artist Prize 2023. The intensity captured beautifully.

Image 9: After You (2021) - Aerial footage capturing the mayhem exactly as intended. Great memories of Assembly House from this period @assembly_leeds

#ArtProcess #WorkInProgress #MakerCulture #SculptureStudio #Sculptural #StudioLife #ArtMaking #HandmadeArt #ArtDocumentation #EmergingArtist #ArtistsOnInstagram #ProcessArt #TimeAndLabor #ArtAndWork #EnduranceArt #ContemporaryArt #ConceptualArt #FineArt #UKArtist #UKSculpture #LeedsArtist #YorkshireArt #LeedsArtsScene #glenthemaker taken in Assembly House by @glenthemaker

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a year ago