Tuesday 16 September 2014

well, the first thing i want to say is:

What an opening line! Mandate my ass!
Theres a background blog which you should check out concerning my art project B-Movie. And since this whole project is based on Gil Scott Herons song, if you havent ever heard it, you must do it now, and listen to what he says. Written in 1981, it's eerily prophetic. I've combined a mural commission from Benricks Coffee Shop in Prenton. who wanted to brighten the place up, and their brief was to do something that 'got people talking', together with a couple of artworks, and it's my contribution to this years Liverpool Biennial as a registered Independent.
And what mandate has Scotland given this total sham of a US lapdog Govt? I mean there's only 1 tory mp elected up there. The muck's flying now though, and the No campaign finally got going. Doom, gloom, scare stories, and backwards facing policies.
Salmond wants to lead his Country to energy self sufficiency by the year 2020. Meanwhile, we're 
getting more tied to hip with the US, and out of touch with so much of the rest of the world, even Europe doesn't like us.Can you blame Alex Salmond for wanting away?
While everyone else is going green, were still guzzling the black stuff, and faster than ever. And while we're tied to oil, we're tied to war. The word war doesn't mean anything to us any more I don't think. It's slaughter thats going on in the Middle East, and it's only getting worse. The only place to get both the story, and behind the story, is to watch Aljazeera. Brave journalism. They have Correspondants everywhere, not, incidentally, 'embedded' with 'our boys'! So I chose the Aljazeera symbol to represent a couple of things with this project. First, it translates as 'peninsula'. I'm staging the project on the Wirral this year, and looking at the skyline from this side of the Mersey this Biennial. So I've painted in the Liverpool skyline as a reflection on the glasses of the main artwork. Secondly, they really do do news well. They started broadcasting in the US just over a year ago. I was surprised when I heard that, what with the Corporate  dumbed-down media that dominates. Aljazeera is like Gil, tellin' it like it is. So I thought I'd combine some iconic imigary on the mural.

We've managed to manipulate a situation with Putin this past year, which no doubt will be the narrative behind fracking. We don't live in the US or Australia, where 200 miles of nothingness can surround a town. And the environmental disasters caused are numerous. Problem is, everyone's been paid off well, and there's confidentiality clauses built in, to stop the downsides of fracking becoming known. While all the mess unfolds daily on mainstream news, and people walk around  connected to the world via a smartphone and twitter, moaning and gossiping about all the bad news and the bankers, laws are being slipped through Parliament. These laws have stood for centuries, and they're changing them so that licenses can be bought by foreign owned companies, in order to frack right under your house. I briefly remember a snipppet a few weeks ago, where Dave (the one who would lead the greenest Govt yet) said something to the effect that we would only frack our national heritage sites, and areas of outstanding natural beauty in 'exceptional circumstances'.

This man will frack the lot of you, then it'll be off with all his chums after a jolly good days hunting for a share of the spoils. I liked him when he tore a strip off Van Rumpoy, here's a politician who speaks his mind I thought.. But his true colours are the worst kind of tory. He's been doing the rounds in the States this last week. All the talk shows, fox, Hannity....etc...etc. God help us! Anyway, I painted him enjoying a spot of Bulgarian red, and having a fag. 
The mural took me 4 days, and resides on a wall in an alleyway besides Benricks.

This next piece symbolises the tough face the US shows to the world, but its a society that has so many of its own problems to fix, fragmenting and fracturing. Recent events in Fergusson highlighted this. Aljazeera were there, got fired directly at by tear gas, and not just one round. They had set up cameras on the top of a driveway of a private house, and they were ordered away by military style police, who then actually started dismantling all their lighting rig and cameras. This is America in 2014. This all happened a couple of days before it even made the news in the UK. 
 I wanted the piece to look like it had been made from a pair of old saloon doors. It's called, 'we woulda' rather had John Wayne'
Excuse the feet!

The medal, 'B-Movie' represents some old American political medals I've got, some 100 years old. There was a secret handshake style one in there, so I've interpreted  that to hang the Gil Scott Heron medal on. That picture of it at the top isn't quite finished. I've still got to glue on some eu cufflinks to the sleeves.

I hope to add to this project. The cafe owners have asked me about updating it for next years election, and if so, I'll make a couple of new artworks.
I can't decide which aj logo shot I like best, I'm going to make some canvasses with them.