To celebrate Northern Contemporary‘s One Year Anniversary, the gallery reached out to a handful of artists that showed there previously and asked them to make something special. I took this as an opportunity to create something that Ive always wanted, a wrestling belt!

This started out much smaller in scope and less complicated than it eventually became, I wanted to do a screen printed series or possibly a collection of iconic wrestling titles. Then I got the idea to really try something new and instead drawing layers to print, draw the layers and have them laser cut on wood.

After I got all the pieces back from the laser guys (Hot Pop Factory) I had the long task of organizing and layering the panels. The I got some old Pro Wrestling Illustrated Magazines and cut out every photo of an Intercontinental Champion I could find. I decided to focus on the ‘Continental Championship because as a kid it was my favourite and unleashes a somewhat unhealthy amount of nostalgia. In a way, taking on a month long project like this would only be doable for me if it was something I could get obsessive about. Anyways, after cutting out all the guys I collaged and glued everything together. I applied a few coats of slightly tinted clear coat to specific parts so when they are all assembled different areas would fall back on not compete with each other.

The version of the championship Im specifically paying tribute to is the Reggie Parks Intercontinental Title. Aside from a few design tweaks, this version was used from 1986-1999. While doing the collage phase, I made sure to only represent wrestlers than held the title between those years.

Ive done a few things similar, but this is by far the furthest Ive pushed the idea of a 3D or mutli-surfaced piece. I fully intend to do more stuff like it.