Completed Paper-Based Piece: 'Flagging 10'

'Flagging 10', Acrylics, Paper Collage, Ink, Spray Enamel & French Polish On Paper,
45 cm X 60 cm, 2018

Ten it is, then.  Here’s the tenth - and last, of my series of paper-based, flag-derived pieces.  It has extended my scope for doing violence to the flag still further (even if some of that actually occurred beneath the top surface).  However, it definitely seems time to conclude the series here.  I can feel myself starting to default to the same, familiar solutions, with these, now – and that’s rarely a good thing (once you become aware of it consciously, at least).  Anyway, I think there’s just enough variation and progression there to let them stand as a self-contained series, so I’ll probably put them all together in a following post, to offer a final overview and let you judge for yourself.

For months now, I’ve been presenting these as ‘work in progress’. That indicates that I’ve always had a sense that these might mutate further – and for a long time I assumed this would involve the inclusion of text.  At another stage, I also had ambitions to start physically abrading, eroding and generally abusing them with power tools, washing machines, chemicals or flames.  Such extended periods of “What if…” reflection, are a perfectly healthy component of any creative process – but perhaps there was just a little too much  procrastination and indecisiveness last year too.

So, in the interests of breaking that cycle in 2018, and just bringing things to a more assertive conclusion - I’ve made some decisions regarding these particular pieces.  The versions I’ve already presented over the last few months, without text, are going to remain in that form - as physical, paper-based artifacts, at least.  Within the overall ‘This S(c)eptic Isle’ project, text will continue to be a vital component of much of the work, and so there’s definitely room for at least part of it to function on pure image alone.  I’m increasingly coming to an understanding that there’s no imperative for each individual piece to be trying to do everything at once.  It may be a reason for some of my output feeling a bit clogged or overworked, in the past.

For the same reason, the (admittedly seductive) notion of employing destructive physical processes, just feels like a step too far for images that are already dense with visual distress.  Were that idea to play out – I think it would make more sense to start with a much ‘straighter’ rendition of the flag, and let the physical attack do more of the heavy lifting – both in terms of process and implied meaning.

In fact, there is a clear intention to combine these images with text, but to do so by recycling them through a completely different medium.  I’ve alluded several times to my idea that my related ‘Below The Line / Beneath Contempt’ text piece might be presented in video form, and I’ve decided to definitely forge ahead with that plan this year.  Any further mutation of these flag images should occur in the digital realm, as a component of that.  As that particular piece of writing is quite deliberately constructed from found sources, it seems quite appropriate that I should continue the theme by recycling and translating my own material too.  It also squares with my growing interest in the repurposing of original content, and the wider issues of authorship and appropriation, over the last couple of years.  The intention to follow through on my oft-expressed desire to make more A.V. work does, of course, release a whole new tranche of unknowns (and new skills to be acquired), but I’m already in the process of taking the best photos I can of each piece, and recruiting some much-needed technical assistance, to that end.

There are a couple of final points to make, while we’re at it.  Firstly: These pieces are no longer untitled.  I’ve decided that the series as a whole is now called ‘Flagging’, and so - for want of a brighter idea, these works will be known as ‘Flagging 1 -10’.  Titling has already been a bit of a thorny problem within this overall project, and I've also learned (from bitter experience), that the whole 'Untitled' thing can cause real problems when cataloguing/exhibiting work - so it's good to get that nailed down.  And finally: yes – I’m well aware I’ve got a right cheek accusing Damien Hirst of plagiarism or ideas theft (in my last post), in the light of some of the above - and when I’ve already ‘flagged up’ my own debt to Jasper John’s in these pieces, more than once.

Damien: The Omen

Damien Hirst, 'Expanded From Small Red Wheel', Assembled Painted Wood, Found Materials & Objects,  1985-86

It’s very easy to be cynical about Damien Hirst.  Let’s face it – he gives us plenty of reason.  When the Y.B.A.s claimed their place in the cultural limelight, in the late 1980s and 1990s, it was facilitated, in no short measure, by Hirst’s marketing instincts and talent for P.R.  In the years since, he’s become synonymous with the kind of A-list, Art-celebrity that normally implies the production (by others) of increasingly bombastic Art statements.  It’s easy to assume that his main function is to fulfill the voracious demands of a global market, whilst yielding diminishing creative returns.

Hirst’s leveraging of the Art market has - I suppose, shone some kind of searchlight on the ludicrous obscenity of the whole situation.  But it’s not been without making himself fabulously wealthy in the process.  Let’s not forget that this is the guy who actually distorted the global diamond market whilst creating history's most expensive memento mori, and the ultimate luxury art-object, in 2007’s ‘For The Love Of God’.

Damien Hirst, 'For The Love Of God', Platinum, Diamonds & Human Teeth, 2007

There are definitely lessons (both positive and negative), to be learned from Hirst’s example.  He’s surely no more or less pernicious a figure than other huckster-showmen, like Warhol or Koons.  And it may actually be true that most of the big names from Art History were really just those most adept at putting themselves in the spotlight, following the money, and playing the angles.  I guess I’m just a bit too suspicious (or naively idealistic) to completely buy all that ironic detachment and bland amorality, from figures so blatantly benefitting from the status quo.  It is, of course – a reason why I’m sure I'll never be rich or famous myself.

Damien Hirst, 'Mother & Child Divided' (Detail),  Preserved Dead Calf (Sectioned) in Vitrine, 1993

That said, I do believe in giving credit where it’s due.  None of us are perfect.  A  holier-than-thou attitude can be its own kind of pose - and plenty of meaningful artistic statements were still authored by some pretty compromised individuals.  I would personally include the preserved results of Hirst’s early chainsaw-butchery activities in that category.  He’s not the first to have incorporated carnage into his process.  But of all his work, they perhaps feel the least like someone else’s re-packaged idea, and emit a genuine resonance beyond mere shock value [1.].

Damien Hirst, 'Lancet', Assembled, Wood, Found Materials & Objects,  1983 -85

Anyway, I was interested to read a recent Guardian article [2.], in which Hirst detailed the early creative breakthrough that set him on the path towards everything that followed.  Such insights into an Artist’s origins are generally of interest to me, and often prove revealing.  Amusingly, this one reinforces (quite literally) Hirst’s status as an opportunist thief.  However, it also demonstrates considerable empathy, and that the impulse that triggered his actions, and the resulting body of work - were essentially altruistic.  There may be a tinge of implied prurience about his account, but also no little self-awareness and reflection on ‘the human condition’.  The Robert Rauschenberg connection also interests me - as does Hirst’s recognition that he will always be more of a collagist than a painter (something I can definitely identify with).  Perhaps most importantly (and highly derivative of more than one other artist 's work - though it is) I really rather like the ‘found’ assemblage piece reproduced with the article [Top].





[1.]:  On encountering Hirst's 'Mother And Child Divided' (a piece which literally allows you to pass through the bodies of sectioned livestock) - my overriding reaction was, "this is an unique Art experience, unlike any other I've had".

[2.]:  Damien Hirst,  'Damien Hirst On His Greatest Career Move - Breaking Into His Neighbour's Home', The Guardian, Thursday 1 February 2018.  The article is itself an extract from a podcast, 'The Start', which can be heard here.