From Ai Weiwei to Zheng Lu: meet UAP, the dream builders bringing art to life on a grand scale
How art fabricators Daniel and Matthew Tobin have been bringing artworks to life in major sculptural projects across the globe
Daniel Tobin, creative director and co-founder of art and design studio Urban Art Projects (UAP), says: “It was a crazy project to take on.” He’s reminiscing about a piece by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman that UAP helped make.
A 10-metre high octopus and playscape for Vanke Group’s One City development in the centre of Yantian, Shenzhen, the oversized mollusc was made out of yachting rope and woven by hand in segments. “It took a lot of research and problem-solving,” Daniel says.
UAP does not shy away from challenging and unlikely artworks, and has slowly become one of the most experienced and skilled art fabricators in the world. The company was founded in Brisbane, Australia in 1993 by Daniel and his twin brother Matthew Tobin.
The pair had discovered the delights of art and sculpture via their artistic father and a carpenter neighbour who would let them make things in his workshop as children. While doing their art degrees, they worked at a local art foundry and fabricator. A few years later, when the owner decided to move his production offshore, they saw a gap in the market.
“We bought an old welding works that made skips and reinforcing mesh for the construction industry and reinvested the earnings into building a foundry so that we could launch our art-based business,” Matthew says.