Three weeks ago, I wrote a blog about famed performance act The Iceman (aka AIM aka Anthony Irvine) and his then-upcoming art show PEG IT! at Guggleton Farm Arts – ‘The Gugg’ – in Dorset.

Yes, it’s a farm.

There are over a thousand paintings, all for sale. He is now halfway through the month-long exhibition and is living on-site at the farm/gallery.

His live performance act involved/involves melting blocks of ice in increasingly desperate ways.

So how, I hear you ask, is his new art exhibition going?

Well, funny you should ask. The Iceman – whose painting name is AIM – has just updated me. He says…

It took a few journeys to get all the art works here – over a thousand – and a lot of physical work hanging them.

There are still lots on the floor. 

I’ve been framing some from old frames, defining and professionalising the images. 

This is my own assessment of the show at half point. 

In all seriousnice, the show is going rather well and I am selling more than I expected. 

The Gugg is not a traditional gallery as such but quite a lot goes on there. People go to events there (eg open mike music/pizza evenings on Thursdays) and I beckon them into the milking parlour gallery. Quite a few people come back more than once because of the sheer volume of art works. The most common initial response is: “Cor! That’s a lot of pictures!” 

I sleep in the hayloft. It is very dark at night.

Skye, a woman who used to live near Crazy Larry’s in Chelsea (the venue of my first ever block of ice) has just moved into a house next door to The Gugg. On Thursday, she chose four paintings with which to decorate her bare walls.

Skye’s friend Charles just couldn’t get enough of AIM’s paintings that night and he waxed lyrical – eg “This is the most amazing fucking exhibition I have ever seen!” – to me without realising I was the artist. 

He said the same thing in the morning… sober… when I met him at Dikes, the local independent supermarket. 

Later on that evening he explained to me, during a sambuca session in the barn after a visit to meet Stalbridge locals in the local Swan pub, his technique of not vomiting when drinking to excess – incredible mind control – before rescuing Skye’s dog from behind a gate by pulling it up by the scruff of its neck and then relieving himself perilously near AIM’s art work. He recognised my painting of the post-iceterity block at Richmond Bridge because he rows on the Thames. 

A man from Dagenham wants the opposing painting-post-iceterity Block at Gravesend.

One of the best things that has happened has been visits from the local  Stalbridge primary school: three separate visits from years 4/5/6.

They loved the art and chose their favourites and I got The Iceblock out of the freezer for them to meet. This is an extra long-lasting block because it keeps going back in the freezer after making an appearance and The Iceman does not shorten its life by his traditional means. 

The Iceman did put the Block on his head and say “Ice-cap!” which bemused the children.

(IN AN ENDEARING, FASCINATING AND NOT UN-ECCENTRIC VIDEO ON YOUTUBE, THE ICEMAN aka AIM SHOWS YOU ROUND HIS ART EXHIBITION… HERE)