official site for visual artist Guy Denning – www.guydenning.org
when their mask is down, and the hate won’t hide
i bear your crown, above their tide
this still land of fear, being all the flight
i rest still here, holding end your night
we can be that god, sun buries its eyes in
where we choose wing shod, to fly our horizon
so mute with our silence, those turned to be freed
part their shroud of shrill violence, as this is all we want need
The sad news that the artist Paula Rego has died…
I discovered Rego’s work in the late 1980s and it struck me like a hammer. At the time the UK art world tended to be pretty dismissive of figurative painting; a prejudice that stretched from the art schools to the art media. I too was ploughing an abstract painting furrow thinking this was the direction to push in hope of making a career as a ‘serious’ artist.
Even though I wanted to paint figuratively and I wanted to engage with social and political issues in my work I didn’t have the courage to thoroughly break out of the dead aesthetic I was drilling until I saw Rego’s work.
One of the major reasons I make what I make now, both aesthetically and regarding subject matters, is because of the last three and half decades of inspiration her work has given me. She has left a truly individual and astounding body of work that will never be sidelined by future fashions in art.
This painting was well underway when I heard she had died but was finished today, two days after the news of her passing; it would never have existed without her. The only way I can think to mark the sad news is to give it the subtitle ‘a painting for Paula’.
Thank you Paul Rego. May you rest in peace… and well remembered.
Music has always been a fundamental ingredient to the making of my art. When people talk about having an emotional response to seeing my paintings and drawings I can only relate that experience to my love of music. Music touches me at a base level. Even though I make music with computer technology I don’t consider myself a musician. And I worry, when other musicians explain to me the technicalities of how music can be engineered to create an emotional response, that perhaps knowing how to make music that way would destroy the magic it gives me. So I stick with the medium I know and perhaps channel the emotions I receive from other creatives into that.
I have a ridiculously large and varied collection of music. In genre it spans hardcore gabba to minimalist ambient, post-punk industrial to sixties pop, medieval plainchant to seventies loungecore. Hundreds of thousands of tracks… and the primary criterion is that it must be ‘interesting’ – which covers a vast arena of sins.
One track in particular has been repeatedly played for a few years now while I’m working in the studio and that’s been “Yesterday’s Fire” by Moonface. I think my attraction to the song was the drama within the music itself but also the vocal delivery by Spencer Krug which has a few notes that raise my spirits and the corners of my mouth every time I hear them.
The more times I listened to the song, and I would frequently put it on loop, the more I started to identify with the lyrics. I’m not certain what Spencer’s intentions were when he wrote the song, but for me it came to represent and retell some of my frustrations I have had over the years with the art gallery arena… those gatekeepers that decide what will and won’t be seen in their precious, hallowed cultural halls.
Spencer very kindly gave me permission to use his words in my work.
The particular track that inspired this set of work can be heard here
But if you’d like to see what Spencer Krug is up to currently then follow and support him here:
https://pronouncedkroog.bandcamp.com/
We came to France fourteen years ago and because of the differences in property values between the outskirts of Bristol and rural Finistere we were able to afford a house with a chunk of land and an old workshop. I was overjoyed that I could at last afford to paint and draw fulltime and that I had the space to do that without distraction.
We also came over with a six month old lurcher puppy called Harvey. I have painted in that workshop (long since called my ‘studio’) for fourteen years and it has only just occurred to me that every day I have sat in there working, Harvey has been sat in there with me.
Sadly Harvey died this morning and in the mere seven hours since he has gone there is already a Harvey shaped hole in the household. He was a quiet dog, but the house now seems quieter.
I know that every pet lover faces this situation but it does seem particularly odd to me when I would never have considered myself a ‘dog person’ before Harvey lolloped into my life. He was the dopiest, most loving and playful four-legged bag of nonsense you could imagine, and all the family loved him.
The studio dog story I’ll leave you with though… the time when, still a puppy, and seeing my attention being laboured on a small chalk and charcoal drawing on canvas, he waited until I stood up. Then he snatched it from the easel and ran out of the studio dragging it through a wet, long-grassed garden. When I got the canvas back it was as clean as a whistle and Harvey was content that my attention was rightly on him again.
I don’t care about any other dog on the planet; their pedigrees, tricks, abilities and super-powers… No other dog will ever come close. Harvey was the best dog in the world and this pacifist will fight you on that point. And, most significantly, I’ll notice his absence in my studio every day.
Rest in peace sunshine…
What we’re not hearing from the media and politicians on the current chaos of Afghanistan…
You decide why this isn’t part of the narrative.
Our western governments in a greater part created this problem. Through the longest CIA operation ever mounted, the US government financed and armed Afghanistan’s Mujahideen against the Russians when the Soviets moved in to support a communist (coup) government in Afghanistan (1978). These Mujahideen would later fracture into groups that became Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Then the CIA followed on from this by supporting the Taliban, hoping to create a client government in Afghanistan offering them covert support for years. But factions within the Taliban, favouring independence from US influence, dumped UNOCAL (now part of Chevron) in preference of a non-US oil company for a major pipeline in 1998 and then the US attitude really changed. ‘Covert’ went out the window…
The US needed an excuse to ‘tidy up’ a non compliant Taliban so used 9/11 as the excuse to potentially invade (despite the fact that there was no connection between the official US 9/11 story and Afghanistan or the Taliban). The Taliban were rightly worried about an open US led military invasion so they even offered to give up bin Laden to the US. But Bush and the rest of the war hawks refused to accept this. They wouldn’t even negotiate on the issue. The US, and a particularly vociferous and powerful group PNAC (Project for a New American Century) within the government wanted war. They wanted control of the region. They started the war that cost trillions of dollars. They engineered elections to put in place puppets that would follow the US lead. That’s significantly why we are where we are.
And the withdrawal was negotiated and agreed during Trump’s term. Biden is not solely responsible for this mess.
What to do? Is there a place for UN peace keeping ‘blue-helmets’ to secure exit for any refugees? I’ve not heard that mentioned…
I’d say let those that want out get out and facilitate it and welcome those refugees throughout and across the world. And let those that want to stay have their Islamic state.
Further military and covert ‘intelligence’ operations are never going to fix what is essentially a crisis that originated in colonial histories and is still being kept alive by ignorant delusions of political omnipotence and exceptionalism.
Feel free to correct me if any of this is wrong – I’m always happy to be better informed.
A few questions…
When a country is faced with economic, health and social problems caused by a global pandemic, what kind of government focuses its attention on legislation to clamp down on peaceful protest?
When a country is faced with immediate economic and trading uncertainties due to severing political ties with its largest trading partner of four decades, what kind of government focuses its attention on legislation to clamp down on peaceful protest?
And what kind of government tries to enact legislation to clamp down on protest when the possibility of protesting against such legislation is made impossible because of existing, temporary, emergency restrictions on the numbers of people that can freely assemble?
An answer…
An authoritarian, repressive, quasi-dictatorial government. And I think I’m being charitable there… (I haven’t used the F word despite temptation). Why else would a government even propose legislation like this at a time like this? It’s either incompetent or authoritarian.
It’s also depressing to see so many people taking the side of the government when commenting on the recent demonstrations taking place across the UK against the Police, Crime, Courts and Sentencing Bill. Those that oppose the demonstrations clearly haven’t read the proposed bill. There’s even opposition within government ranks and the police force itself. That’s how much of a threat to a democratic state this legislation is.
Protest isn’t a sanctioned gift provided by the state. Protest is a civil right directed at the state by those that seek to effect changes to perceived injustices and inequities.
This legislation is being driven by a hardcore minority of dogmatic, piratical authoritarians aboard a politically rudderless ship of government, captained by a serial liar and charlatan ex TV political/celebrity scared of losing his grip on the wheel of the helm. And it’s being voted through the parliamentary process (supposedly in place to challenge bad legislation) by members of a government that see their main duty is to maintain their own positions and the power of their political party.
Prior to this legislation the police could only restrict protest if they considered there was a threat of disorder, disruption, damage or intimidation. Now we have the addition of the particularly intentionally vague notion of ‘impact’. There is also the addition of prosecution for ‘illegal’ protest even if the protester is unaware a protest has been deemed illegal. Before this bill, you were only potentially arrestable at a demonstration if you knowingly broke the law whilst at that demonstration. With this law now, even the noise of a demonstration can potentially be deemed illegal if the noise ‘may result in serious disruptions to the activities of an organisation’. How is this defined? A bank worker’s loss of concentration when working on a spreadsheet as a march with conga drummers passes by outside perhaps? Well it’s simple – the Home Secretary decides what is disruptive. The Home Secretary decides what is illegal. And this can be done without reference to Parliament. So you could arrive to peacefully demonstrate on a march and halfway through that demonstration the Home Secretary decides the ‘impact’ of the demonstration makes it illegal. You are now breaking the law and could be subject to arrest. And it doesn’t have to be a march of a hundred thousand people. It could be a dozen people, or it could be you and two mates or it could even be just you on your own, with a placard and sense of enormous injustice that you need to share.
The general population that suck up the bullshit they’re being fed by the tabloid media need to remember where their rights to improved healthcare, pensions, housing, working conditions etc came from. These things weren’t handed down by the establishment. They were fought for and won by their parents and grandparents before them. The previous generations who were happy to stand up, kick off and be heard.
The mediaeval day of judgement as a metaphor for the impending calamity humanity faces. Well…at least in the original conception there was delivery and salvation for a few souls. The economic and political system that we live under is destroying our planet and, if left to its own exploitative desires and devices, it will soon destroy its originators. This ‘free market’, ‘neoliberalism’, ‘free enterprise economy’, ’laissez-faire model’… call it what you like. The differences are as the differences between the varied shades of the Abrahamic faiths. They all maintain the same core underpinning foundation to variously ornate or austere architectures. But, despite the incessant onanistic devotions of its adherents, Capitalism isn’t a religion. Capitalism isn’t even a faith. It has surpassed those stages of development and is now fully at the level of a deranged and impending, implosive death cult. Billions unwittingly worship this cult and support it uncritically; deferring to the supposed intellectual authority of its economics department academia priests with their mysterious cult language that proposes their natural order and alleged rationalism. Continuing to insist that it alone is the only true path to not only economic but social freedom. Its acolytes repeat its cliched mantras without critical analysis like a sacred liturgy.
Capitalism, since its origins in sixteenth century European mercantilism, always seeks to grow, to profit… to enable it grow… and to profit. And in the four to five centuries since that sick seed was first sown it has exhausted the potential mine of exploitable resource. Both material and now human. We currently extract resources at a rate of exploitation that exceeds the capacity to replace them. But this increasing scarcity, that in any other circumstance would be seen as a suggestion towards moderation is in the mind of the capitalist seen only as an opportunity to price gouge and profit. Climate change disasters are good for free market capitalism. They are seen as an opportunity.
We need to limit global warming to a maximum increase of 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels. And it needs to be done at the very latest, with the most optimistic predictions, by 2050. Currently the average global temperature on Earth has increased by just over 1° C since 1880. Two-thirds of that warming has occurred since 1975, and it continues at a rate of roughly 0.15 – 0.20°C per decade. Work out the numbers and you see that 2050 is cutting a pretty fine line.
“Confutatis maledictis” – When the wicked are confounded.
We need the culture of community. We do not need the cult of individualism. The cult of the self at the expense of the group is what has brought us to this critical historical juncture and we have two choices. We can work together as a natural body to survive and grow or we can fracture into artificially constructed divisions and blow away like dust. There is more that unites us than unties us, particularly when we examine the near future’s designs on the living biosphere. The future will only be post-capitalist. Because the alternative is nothing. It can be achieved through consensus and pre-empt the worst environmental cataclysms that are currently predicted or it will be the natural outcome of humanity’s extinction. That is the choice we, and the next few generations face.
How was 2020 for you? How have you been dealing with the reality of yours, mine… our lifestyles?
Nothing comes from nothing… and COVID-19 did not spring from a silent pit. It did not come without warning. Most of the world’s governments, who always prioritise the maintenance of their period of governance, demand of their scientific advisors to advise on the most urgent threats the smooth operation that their engine of state might face. The economic threat of a zoonotic, pandemic infection was so high on the list that many governments instigated exercises to simulate outcomes. Many of the same governments also cut scientific, medical and emergency contingency funding because the arrival of that risk was of an indeterminate date.
COVID-19 wasn’t the first and it will not be the last such disease to carve its twisted journey through humanity. But the greater body of scientific opinion is certain that there will not be the century long wait (based on the erroneous media cliché that continually relates this pandemic to the Spanish Flu) to face this or a worse pandemic catastrophe again.
The lifestyles we live have bred, fed and spread this virus. And our overarching economic system, that has been treated as if it was some sacred cow, is the major silent culprit responsible for this and our other current pressing ills.
Humanity’s seemingly insatiable appetite for an unnecessary, but habitual, diet of meat sourced from the animal world seems to have been a significant early character in the story of COVID-19. Globalisation, now personalised and normalised through non-essential, affordable, international air travel rapidly spread the virus, and seemingly maintained its presence like in no previous pandemic.
The personal carnage that COVID-19 has inflicted on individuals and families around the world is yet another symptom of modern humanity’s destructive influence on the globe. In fact, COVID-19 itself could be viewed as a symptom of the same. Another example of our incessant, ignorant, inadvertent pursuit of our own extermination.
A lot of people, some friends and family too, are pissed off when they hear me start up on this subject again. But I don’t care; I really couldn’t give a shit. I’ve been banging this drum since the 1980s and it really shouldn’t need to still be banged. But the problem is still there, and in fact the problem has worsened. We are at the very end of the time when we can do something that will turn this around. If we don’t, our future will be getting very unfamiliar and uncomfortable; the next generation’s future will be fucked; and the generation after that? Well – it goes beyond any post-apocalyptic cinema CGI extravaganza you can stream on netflix or amazon prime.
If you are unaware of what is happening ecologically, I’m sorry but I don’t believe you. There is no excuse for ignorance and there is no justification for ignorance; particularly if you have children, or grandchildren. There is no responsible excuse for ‘business as usual’ and deep down you know that just as well as I do.
Stop flying – particularly if it’s only for leisure or holidays. Turn to a vegetarian diet if you can’t immediately cope with a vegan diet. Use public transport if it’s affordable and available. Use cars only if you have to and simultaneously maximise the utility of each trip while minimising the number of trips. It only takes thought and planning – it’s not difficult. If you’ve got the money to change what’s fueling your energy consumption, then do it. But don’t castigate those that don’t have the financial support you may benefit from.
More importantly, and something that everyone can do regardless of income, is to research the issue further. Follow accredited climate scientists on twitter who will point you in the direction of the most pressing issues. And when you find information that you consider of real concern, forward it in an email to your political representatives. These people need to know that these are issues that the electorate care about. Politicians generally care about an issue if the people that hold the axe over their post care about it too.
Work together with likeminded people in your community and build a force for change at a local level practically and a regional and national level ideologically.
If you wait… if you do not build… then to reverse paraphrase a famous film… they will not come. And if governments are left to their own devices they display their endless capacity for procrastination and self-congratulatory delusion of achievement. And if government is left unchallenged, when it finally addresses the issues involved, it will be at a time when the crisis is full-blown. That is not a mystical prediction – that is how government works. Modern government is reactive; not proactive.
And all the governments will have left at their disposal in the end is force. And that force will be directed down and out from its origin. It won’t be directed inwards or upwards to the source of the problems that have brought us to the future’s here and now.
You need to recognise that the celebrated individualism that has been trumpeted as our collective saviour for the last forty years, is the seed of the weed that chokes our attempts to build a garden of Eden for today and tomorrow.
You need to start challenging the governing class now, within the formal mechanisms that they permit. But, because of the industrial and financial might of what is driving our extinction, that will not be sufficient. If the established political processes were strong enough in the past then we would not be where we are today.
But I am sure, that one day soon you will feel the need to become more militant. Well – that too goes beyond being a right. In fact it will become a duty. A duty of protection to yourself, your family and your community. Otherwise, through a lack of involvement, you become complicit amongst your peers in maintaining the crisis.
You cannot continue to claim ignorance. And if you are still ignorant of the facts at this late hour in the day, then it is because you have chosen to prioritise other, more comforting, distractions.
And if we continue as we are, we will sink into the morass of neo-feudal serfdom under an abusive and anonymous state, until we’re all just swept from the surface of the planet like dust.
So… what you do DOES matter.
Happy 2021.
Increasingly the street art world is going the way of the more established contemporary/fine/mainstream (delete as appropriate) world. We now have the arbiters of what constitutes ‘true’ street art (generally hiding behind the anonymity of social media) declaring authoritatively what can or cannot be done in the name of said street or urban art. For the first week of October I was working at MAUSA (Musée d’Art Urbain et de Street Art) in north east France after being offered a residency and exhibition. Because this is specifically a museum space that focuses on urban and street art I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to recreate one of the urban art interventions that I was the most proud of. So, I set about more fully creating the environment that I worked on for the Paris Tour 13 project seven years ago. I never considered that it would be something that I would have to defend or explain but I find myself inviting the ire of a small but vocal set of what can only be considered street art ‘purists’. Apparently, street art and by association the Tour 13 project were, and are, definitively and absolutely ephemeral and temporary; so their reproduction is a contemporary urban art heresy. I have broken the rules… I am the heretic.
Where to start with this eh? OK – here goes…
Firstly, I am recreating the work because I had more ideas for the original installation than I had time to execute. I also have more resources available from the commissioning museum and I am not having to self-fund the work as was the case with the original.
Secondly, we’re dealing with a museum installation – and museums, by definition, take objects or ideas from their original context as a resource of public record, engagement and discussion.
Thirdly, the street art world of graffiti and associated art/vandalism has mutated from its original notion of protest and anarchic self-expression into (at its extremes) just another vehicle for urban gentrification and fake anonymous art celebrities.
Finally, on a personal level, it was the first time that I was able to express my writing, my visual art and my graffiti history together. Previously each of these strands of my creative life had remained stubbornly independent – mainly due to commercial gallery reticence at handing over expensive wall space to work that could not be physically sold.
I’m in my fifties – don’t tell me what I can or cannot do artistically. I didn’t listen when I was a kid – what makes you think it’ll be any different now?
I have always been fascinated by the medieval obsession with the Bestiarum vocabulum – or Bestiary. An illustrated encyclopedia of animals (real, believed and imagined) where the hand painted illustration would be accompanied by a moral lesson. The lessons of a pious and virtuous life, or fears of divine retribution, were tied to the real world experiences of the known and the unknown world of imagined and foreign beasts. There was also the crossover from moralism to medication – the bestiary could also describe the possible pharmacological uses of animals and their by-products. My Pharmaceutical Bestiary is like a small, personal, contemporary equivalent. An individual rail against the presumed scientific authority of the mental health business and the moralistic approach taken by government over the differences between approved (taxable) and unapproved (untaxable) medications that individuals self-prescribe as a comfort against society’s dysfunction.
Exhibition held at the Vyner Street Gallery in London by Red Propeller.
guydenning.org