2024, Punk, Spycops, Farmers, Bronchitis, onwards...

It’s been quite a start to 2024. In the second week of the month I was involved in an amazing week of R&D with Common Wealth in Cardiff (more to follow), then immediately got side-swiped by illness that mutated into bronchitis and laid me low for the rest of the month.

That said, it’s been a strangely productive month as my typing fingers were still working, even if my lungs weren’t, so I’ve managed to move a lot of things along, on paper, that have needed a bit of a shove for a while.

The month started with the announcement from the 309 Punk Project in Pensacola that I’ve been invited to be their July ‘24 artist in residence - the first international resident in their programme that’s been running for the past three years. I’m really excited by this, as they’re an inspiring bunch of people, who I had the pleasure to meet back in 2018 when we were presenting together at a conference in Los Angeles. The 309 is a thing of beauty - an old punk house in the city now transformed into a living archive and project space celebrating the city’s punk scene. To say it’s up my street is something of an understatement. Do check them out. (Needless to say, I’ll be even more excited if the funding application I’ve put in to go and do the residency is successful…)

As mentioned in the first paragraph, I was part of a week-long R&D in early January with an amazing group of people, brought together by Common Wealth, for a National Theatre Wales-funded R&D week, to test the potential for a performance based on under-cover policing, specifically from the point of view of activists and groups who were infiltrated.

It’s a fascinating subject. The two main advisors we had with us for the week were the two hosts of the Spycops.Info podcast (I’ll not name them - not because they’re in-hiding or anything, but out of respect for the fact that their lives were turned upside down by undercover surveillance and the abuse of power that came with that). Their stories are equal-parts fascinating, inspiring, scary, and enraging. And if you’re wondering whether the Police were just doing what needs to be done to keep society safe, the activists successfully sued them and the investigation is ongoing.

The week was spent in the Royal Oak pub in Cardiff (which is an amazing, proper, old, pub on Newport Rd), with them, and a group of musicians, performers, and writers, to begin imagining what this performance might look like. Photographer Jon Poutney dropped in a few times to document things and these are selection of the wonderful pictures he took (all copyright, his).

My role is as the designer of the whole thing, so I was primarily observing, taking pictures, playing with lights and smoke, and things like that. I’ve put a zine together to capture something of the essence of the week and to begin that process of visual translation. You can see it here:

As well as that, I’ve started work on a new project over in Weston-super-Mare with RCKa architects, which is a redevelopment of the old Tropicana Lido - the site for Banksy’s ‘Dismaland’ and, more recently, ‘SEE MONSTER’.

Over the next two years the site is being redeveloped to become a multi-use space, most significantly with the capacity to hold large, open air, gigs. My role on the project is to develop and deliver the artistic outreach programme and to design a major new sculptural element to be incorporated into the redevelopment. With a history of the site including sculptural elements like those in the pics below, there’s plenty to play with. So watch this space…

Last, but by no means least, I’ve been working on a project for a few years now, trying to bring a photographic archive - taken by Pop Artist, Derek Boshier, when he lived in Wales in the 70s - back to Wales. For any of you that saw the show of Derek’s work I curated at Mostyn back in 2019, you’ll have had a taste of the archive - an extraordinary glimpse of Welsh rural life in the 1970s through the lens of one the UKs original Pop Artists. Part of the issue is the geographical distance between us (me in Cardiff, Derek in L.A.) and the fact that these photographs were taken half a century ago, so locating them and any negatives amongst a studio-archive as big as Derek’s is a bit of needle-in-a-haystack situation.

Anyway, this morning I woke up to these photos from my friend, Jonathan Griffin, who has kindly taken up the task of helping to find this stuff…

(Bronchitis aside…) it looks like 2024 is shaping up pretty well.

The State We're In / The Gallery at Truman Brewery, London

Earlier this year I was part of an amazing project ‘The State We’re In’ by The Gallery/Artichoke (see last blog post). I’m very happy to say that alongside the launch of Season 3 of this project, in September, there’s goign to be an exhibition of the artworks from Season 1+2 at the Truman Brewery, in London.

From the press release…

“Join us at a special, free-to-visit retrospective exhibition at Truman Brewery, London, for 1-week only to mark the launch of The Gallery, Season 3. 

Featuring artworks from Seasons 1 – 3, the retrospective exhibition will showcase The Gallery’s collective power to comment on the some of the most important issues of our time. It’ll be a unique chance to see all of the powerful works exhibited together for the very first time! 

The upcoming Season of The Gallery, launching 4 September, presents 11 timely works in response to the question, No But Where Are You Really From?. This season, the artists share complex, confronting and creative interpretations of identity, origin, heritage, belonging, and what it means to be ‘from somewhere’.

The Gallery is a new kind of cultural institution, without walls – bringing thought-provoking art to everyone on thousands of sites normally reserved for advertising, from bus stops screens to billboards. 
Dates: 2 - 9 September 
Times: 10:00 - 18:00 
Location: Dray Walk, Truman Brewery, E1 6QL 
Price: FREE, no ticket required

Find out more: https://thegallery.org.uk/ “

The State We're In - new billboard

It’s a good day today. I’m off to London for the launch of ‘The State We’re In’ - a new season of digital and print billboard works commissioned by The Gallery and Artichoke.

From the website…

“11 timely and powerful artworks respond to the theme ‘The State We’re In’ on thousands of billboards and outdoor digital screens across the four nations of the UK.. The exhibition ’The State We’re In’ is open in towns and cities, large and small, across our four nations, freely available to millions of people for 4 weeks: from London to Glasgow to Manchester, Southampton and Cardiff. Look out for the artworks on high-streets, bus stops, cinemas and billboards near you!”

I’m genuinely excited by this. The organisation have been great to work with, the project and its content couldn’t be more timely, and making work for the public realm in this way is always fun, rewarding, and unknown. 11 artists have been commissioned for this season of the project and you can see/read about all of them and their work HERE.

In terms of my own work, this is it…

…and as far as my thinking goes, the statement I wrote for the project website says it all…

“Our society and culture increasingly values economic profit and personal advancement above all else; an individualistic and capitalist-driven world-view, that can only lead to division and catastrophe. It is no-longer conjecture that businesses conspire to make profit from activities long-since known to be toxic to the world. ‘Profit and self above all else’, on one level, acts as a critical observation of this problem. It could also be taken as a mantra for the American Psycho generation, reading as something of an objectivist tenet. We live in a time of real-life Bond villains; super-rich, super-powerful, individuals, living on private islands with enough personal wealth to end all the world’s inequalities, but waking up every day and choosing not to. If that’s not a contemporary equivalent of holding the world to ransom, I’m unsure what is.”

If you see any of the billboards on your travels, please do snap a picture and send it to me as these are going to be on hundreds of sites across the UK, so I won’t even see a fraction of them.

Like a sleeping shark...

New year, new prospects.

I’m not one to labour thoughts of new year’s resolutions, but I do like the shedding of the past skin and the soft optimism of the new. I enjoy the clarity that a moment of passing brings.

2022 was fine, but 2023 can be better (though I recall turning 23 many moons ago and feeling like it was a rubbish age to be. I think I just didn't really like the shape of ‘23’ as a number. Who knows…)

There are certainly some interesting things in the pipeline, one of which will be launching at the end of this month. Check back for more details nearer the time. I’m pretty excited about it. I’m also looking forward to pushing some ideas along that have been gathering pace for quite a while - a number of years in one instance.

I also want to put it out into the ether that I’m always just looking for interesting and creative things to do - new projects, new conversations, new conversations that lead to new projects. It’s honestly as simple as that. So, if you’re brewing something and think you might like to talk me about it, then don’t give it a second thought. Just get in touch. Even if I don’t turn out to be the right person, then I’ll almost certainly know someone who is.

One quick recommendation to finish - check out this interview with my old mate Danny Webster about the graphics on his pro-decks in the 80s. When skateboard graphics really had a story to tell.

My Two-Ceiniog and some Self-Reflection

The UK Queen has died. You might have heard.

As with any large historical moment, there’s an implied binary position you are required to take - you’re either 100% for the monarchy or 100% against it. Of course, it can be more nunaced than that.

To lend some context to my own position (which I will state eventually), I’m a product of dual national heritage, albeit both from within the UK. My father is Welsh and my Mother is English. I was born and raised in England and lived there until 2009. We made semi-regular trips to South Wales to visit my Welsh family, but even so, and despite being fiercely proud of the Welsh part of my heritage, I couldn't really have claimed to be anything other than English. Then, in 2009, I moved to Wales. So for around a quarter of my life (the most recent quarter at that), I’ve experienced life in the UK from an entirely different perspective; from a Welsh perspective. So, with all that, I think I’m in a pretty good position to make the comments I’m about to make and observe the things I’m going to claim to have observed.

The death of the Queen is a hot potato over here, there’s no denying it. The majority of people in England will have no idea why that is, or the level of feeling that exists here around this moment. I can say that as, even with Welsh family, the entire time I lived in England I had no understanding of the true relationship between the two countries. I think most people in England see the other three nations as kind-of uppity-cousins; family members that like to make a bit of fuss, but we love each really as we’re family.

If you’re reading this in England, I can tell you that’s absolutely not the case. There’s a deep-rooted and justifiable suspicion and mistrust of England that still exists. Not from everyone, of course. Many thousands of people take no issue at all, but there’s a significant part of the population that do. And, personally, I can’t blame them.

I’m no historian, but take the title of the Prince of Wales. This was a title created by King Edward I in the 1300s after he conquered Wales and gave the title to his son. The Prince of Wales has always been an Englishman, based in England. In that sense it is a symbol of oppression. Of course, it IS only symbolic now the monarchy hold no political power (honest!), but aren’t we more acutely attuned to the power of these symbols than ever? There’s been little discussion in the media around this through this time, but I did find this article which spells it out a bit. And, of course, it’s not all about history. Westminster treats Wales disgracefully and I thank goodness we have our own parliament to deal with the lack of respect shown to the country by the English ruling party.

The ‘United’ Kingdom is not united and never has been. On some level it’s a single political entity (but not even that anymore really), but you’ve only got to look back through the history of the Union Flag to see that these countries have rarely, if ever, been united. I made a project around this subject about 10 years ago and you can read more about HERE.

But I didn't really start this piece to try and explain this very difficult relationship or stir up beef with England. It was more about the monarchy and the state circus we’re seeing unfold.

It’s honestly made me think - more - about hierarchy. I think about this a lot. I’ve never had any time or respect for hierarchy. As a kid I was, literally, a young punk, shouting at the world that it’s not fair and hierarchy stinks, and nothing has honestly changed. The idea that one person is somehow more important than someone else really doesn't make sense to me. And none of this has anything to with respect. I’m a great believer in respect - respecting someone for their knowledge, their empathy, their generosity, their experience etc. But hierarchy is like saying, ‘You MUST respect me, because the structure says you must, despite the fact I may have done nothing to earn your respect.’ No one person is worth any more than any other person. And to relate that specifically to what’s happening in the UK right now - with life-saving operations being cancelled and food-banks being shut in honour of the funeral, this is literally like saying, ‘That one person’s life is worth more than yours.’

And, to make this all about me (I’m an artist, everything’s all about me), this has got me reflecting on my personal relationship with hierarchy in connection with my professional life. The art world is all about hierarchy. It really is. It’s about gaining status within the hierarchy, often by attaching oneself to people higher up in that hierarchy, professionally or personally, and absorbing that hierarchical light, much like a vampire sucks life-force from unwitting victims. Picasso’s biographer, John Richardson, wrote this -

"He fed on those around him, like a vampire sucking life out of his victims. He once said something very telling about the fans, stalkers, autograph-seekers, dealers, collectors and paparazzi: 'These people cut me up like a chicken on the dinner table. I nourish them, but who nourishes me?'

"We all donated our energy, if not our blood. If there were six or eight people for lunch, he'd get every single one - he'd seize control of you, turn you inside out. The pretty girls he'd flatter and flirt with. If there were kids present, he'd make toys for them or do drawings. Even animals weren't immune - he'd entice them to come to him. Everyone had to be seduced. You ended the day completely drained. But he'd imbibe all that stolen energy and stride off into the studio and work all night. I can't imagine the hell of being married to him!"

I can’t say I’m honestly surprised. Picasso was an arsehole. Stop press. The art world is full of vampires.

But to make this about me… it’s made me think about my own place and inevitable position within a hierarchy. I’ve been very fortunate to have the career I’ve had so far. I’ve done ok. But I’m also very aware that there have probably been a couple of moments in my career where momentum has been such, that if I’d really leant in to it, things could have been even better. And by ‘better’, I mean more money and more opportunities. The thing is, I can see now that I’ve backed away from those moments as I’ve felt uncomfortable. I’ve stood in an art-dinner whilst a director of an organisation has talked about my work, in front of me, and said to the collected room, ‘Mark’s making some important work currently’. What the fuck does that even mean?

There’s a requirement for an artist to believe this hype and fully inhabit the bandwidth of their own ego to really be successful, and I just can’t bring myself to do it. I’m not prepared to allow myself to believe I’m better than you. I make interesting stuff and do interesting things, but so do you, and so do they, and let’s not forget that person over there. To allow oneself to engage with that is solely for the purpose of rising through a hierarchy that, ultimately, serves no-one than the people intent on maintaining that hierarchy (mostly NOT artists if you’re wondering). - (To clarify, I still WANT those big opportunities and am more than capable of pulling them off, I’m just not going to act like I’m better than you to get them).

And, maybe I should stop there as I also didn't start writing this to rubbish the art world, it’s capable of doing that on its own. It’s more that this intense focus on hierarchy has made me realise what I’ve just written above about my own backing-away from it when I’ve been faced by the opportunity to climb it.

And, to answer the monarchy thing, I simply don’t care. I think they’re an outmoded and irrelevant institution that should be allowed to fade away. It’s not their fault they were born royal, and I don’t wish them any harm, but I think it’s time we just wound them down, like a nuclear power station that’s served it’s purpose but has started leaking crap everywhere as it’s past it’s useful working life. Let QE2 be the last significant face of the UK monarchy and use this as a moment to move on, shall we? Please.