Knife and Fork

An image in banners.

I see this as a very strong image for printing and best seen from a distance. The simplest way to produce it would be to print it onto a synthetic banner, stretch it over a billboard , It is already in a format that is close to being capable of being blown up to a large size.

I see banners as a viable contemporary art form / statement.
They address the question: How can painting exist in a contemporary world of digital expression? It’s a way of blending the old with the new. Making the initial heart felt comment then presenting it in a modern day to day context. After all, banners are everywhere. Their constructed material makes them durable, colourfast and reusable. They are current, readable and universally acceptable. They can be erected and left up as long as useful, then, simply and easily taken down and safely stored for possible later use.
I suppose you could look at that as some kind of cultural phenomena!

I wonder what percentage of British people have gone out for a Chinese meal and decided to try chopsticks. Been given them in a paper packet with instructions on the side about how to hold and use them. One my first outing, it almost made me feel like I was in a foreign land, an honoured guest, that type of thing.

This idea is a kind of duality. A similar example I can think of is the “Balti” dish which originated in the Midlands, basically because it fitted that area, suited the local population – it just evolved. Nowadays you can buy a Balti dish in India itself, we’ve exported the curry back to the place where we invented the term “curry” in the first instance.

In some ways I would be quite happy if people saw this as a billboard and held doubts as to whether or not it was in fact an advertisement.

The flag of Baltistan, an imaginary country to explain where the Balti dish came from. 2008.

The card for a web site I was commissioned to produce by “Unltd” in 2008. Its specifically explored cultural issues, misconceptions, stereotypes and the like. It was meant to be funny albeit in a challenging way.

Map of Britain as we were in the process of invading Iraq – How would we feel if it was our country that was being invaded?

Another anomaly, quite a nice pint actually.

Flight Table from my show “inside” at St Martin in the Bullring 2002, connecting all the people of the world to one table containing the times that flights took to get to the various places. I didn’t put, or light the candle on the top, which actually made the statement.

Constructional costs.

The cost of the printing and possibly the price of a pot of red paint for the frame.

Personal Costs:

I find the costs issue quite tricky as firstly there aren’t huge fees available anyway. Secondly I’m after the billboards because I want to do them rather than get paid to do them.
If materials get covered my only basic interest is that it doesn’t cost me to carry out the project – in fact that the mechanics of production are lubricated.

Documentation

I feel that documentation is a very important part of any artists practice.
I have documentation from the past of work that has long since disappeared. It is also valuable evidence of the process involved, a history of the making of the thing. It helps to explain what it is all about, gives its reasons and can also provide glimpses of ideas and images that get rejected on the way.
It would be very important to me to document this as a project.

I add this as an extra really – it’s done and dusted, the files need strengthening and it’s ready to roll.
I see it as quite a strong but simple image that would fit comfortably in the middle of the whole project
It is however something that I view as simply being useable, my interest in this project is to actually build things for it, spend time on it and perfect ideas I have about it. These ideas are part of my practise anyway, I feel that 48 sheet is an ideal opportunity to take themes of work forward.