Introducing Chris Dobrowolski’s TOY STORIES!

Chris Dobrowolski is a visual artist like no other – lovingly hand-constructing, and bizarrely engineering a number of functioning vehicles from found bits and pieces. This included a tank, boat, hovercraft, pedal car, and an airplane which he flew solo!

Meet Chris Dobrowolski a 54-year-old artist financially trapped in the house where he grew up. His garden shed has become his new studio; a magical place where he's been resident throughout Lockdown – creating kinetic works of art from the toys of his childhood.Some artworks have made it to galleries and installations, and others are revealed here for the first time.Enjoy the ride as Chris bursts forth from the shed to the stage, sharing the stories from his "real-life Scalextric" events to a model installation of former PM (BJ) astride a double-decker bus!

His exploration of the absurdities of modern living through his art is interwoven with a real-life quest to Poland to uncover secrets about his extraordinary family heritage. TOY STORIES sees Chris dig up some metaphorical ghosts of the past, as well as a real German tank dating from the Second World War, and reminds us how little has changed in populist politics between then and now.

Part stand-up comedy, part performance lecture, TOY STORIES takes the audience on an irreverent, powerful and hilarious storytelling adventure through art, contemporary politics, twentieth-century history and… toys!

Our very own museum founder and director, Chris Littledale, has been passionate about toys since he was a young boy. With a father who was a skilled model maker and a mother who was an avid collector of antiques, he began collecting and restoring toys while he was still at school.

What a treat it was for him to show Chris Dobrowolski around his workshop and the tinplate toys he is restoring, whilst enjoying the automatons created by Chris D in his home using his own childhood toys.

Produced by Cambridge based Menagerie Theatre Company, Brighton Toy and Model Museum are delighted to host this fascinating event Tuesday 16th May – Sunday 21st May, 6.15pm-7.20pm.

REVIEWS OF PAST WORK ("Antarctica" and "All Roads Lead to Rome"):

"Live art in all its glory"★★★★★ (Three Weeks, Edinburgh)"Takes us from the personal to the political, across a great swathe of 20th Century history"★★★★★ (The Scotsman)"An hour of brilliantly charismatic storytelling"★★★★ (Broadway Baby)

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