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home 2. Paintings 4: Memory Flinch p5 Photographs 6. Urban Farming

Conceptual Art thinks YOU are shit

IDEAS FROM EARLY PERIOD OF 'BRIT ART MOVEMENT': LATE 1980sCOMMUNITY ART- results when authorities would rather spend £5,000 on a mural than seriously attempt to make deprived estates fit for human habitation. Intended to be 'cheerful' but dumbed down and essentially depressing and patronising. Never found in upmarket areas. Provides work for committees and channels funding that would otherwise be forfeited.
Art+Bureaucracy=Mediocracy* * My own word describing the infrastructure for producing worthy, unchallenging, small town Public Art, probably designed or selected by committee Card-sharpers of the art committee Working all the provincial cities, They cry 'Eccentric' if they hear
These Aare voiceideas that seems at all sincere. Fold up their tablehave andbeen theirin gearmy Andhead withsince the money disappear. (excerpt - P.late Kavanagh)1980s

Hit and run sculpture- PRE-VANDALISED ART, PUBLIC ANTI-ART or ANTI PUBLIC-ART?
My 'Objets D'Art' were to have been dumped clandestinely in areas of social deprivation. They might be 'pre-vandalised' or provoke destruction.
A name and concept I considered working under was
Hit and Run Ambulance

20ft high soccer ball left without warning next to any sign on an estate that says-
 NO BALL GAMES
This object confounds reality by tempting the residents to break the rules while impeding their ability to do so. Perhaps absurdity and humour can open minds to alternative possibilities that can transcend the banal, oppressive, destructive cycle of decay that infests harsh urban environments and poses the threat of stifling imagination, growth and development. Bad council estates are emblematic of erosion of the value and sanctity of life. It is a problem that should be continually addressed so that solutions might be sought. In this way I try to evoke awareness and discussion


Other Community Art proposals:

Cast iron pit bull terrier on a plinth. On the plinth the name 'RUSTY' appears.

A variant is a 10ft+ Pit Bull Terrier on wheels; contructed from timber and named 'TROJAN'
Two likely pet names for dogs, used here with ambiguous meaning.
Pit bull terriers are iconic status symbols of the new underclass. I feel statues of such would be welcomed like the Trojan Horse onto public housing estates; culture by stealth, with reference and respect to timeless, classical education (Story of Troy) added. You can lead a horse to slaughter, but sometimes it needs a push.

'Rusty'- This idea references basic lessons in Chemistry, Physics and Industrial/Art/Social History. Deeper nuances of the ideas are open for you to ponder without being 'spoon fed'.


18ft concrete monolith with a Latin word for DEFACED moulded into it.
Word possibilities include-

deletum- subverto (overturn destroy)
prosterno- (knock down, destroy)

or other similar, such as;
eradico - confundo- disperdo- anullo- deleo-.

A variant idea utilises the Celtic 'Stone Circle' model, where each concrete upright (8ft in height) contains one of the various Latin terms meaning 'defaced'
Reference is made to the Celtic past, using archetypal modern building material. We have moved from the Stone Age into the Concrete Age. Sometimes we must examine what we have become. Why Latin? I leave that for you to consider

Idea dates back to 1989
On completion of monolith or 'stone' circle-
containers and spray cans of paint, plus old brushes are accidentally left lying nearby
for the locals to discover, Thus they can begin their acts of vandalism/revenge/frustration upon the Objet D'Art itself, (which they would've done anyway) and thus become unwitting participants in the process and meaning of the work, therefore subverting their acts of destruction into acts of creativity,so also meeting the obligatory 'community involvement' element. Creativity is in everything human. Life without creativity and imagination leads to frustration, banality and pain.


Further proposal suited to London type urban environment-

Old lady clutching handbag- she is made of vandal-proof carbon fibre...
with a voicebox inside that screams 'please don't hurt me' when she is struck... a surveillance camera monitors local youth interacting with and attempting to harm the figure.
The reason being to provoke thought about community values and respect. An interesting social contrast between North and South UK is that in England acts of violence often involve robbery as motive: Whereas Scottish violence tends to be gratuitous. This would seem to elicit enquiry


Additional:In 1990 I produced undocumentedUndocumented street art applied by hand-cut stencil. Those were inspiredInspired by stencilled gang tags of 1970s New York street gangs, and early work by artist JONATHAN GOSLAN. They consisted of cypher-like images and/or brief verbal statements, such as-
'conceptual art thinks YOU are shit'. This and much
Most of the work on this page complements but greatly pre-dates work by cult artist Banksy. I emphasise this in order toideas enforcehere apre-date senseworks of the realBanksy. perspective

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I believedhad no idea how to actualise my ideas but placated myself with the belief that ideas in their pure cerebral or notational forms were valid media in their own right; a notion taken from Joseph Beuys. To provoke thought, or even to store art ideas for future use, inwho notationalsaid: form"Thought is a valid part of the whole.Sculpture"




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