The Halo Art Gallery
This picture is
reminiscent of the artist’s early work “Vacuum” which was done very early on
his career, a series of shots both still and action of the artist himself
cleaning various locations including his own dwelling and most notably the M1
(it is worth noting that it was during the shooting of the “Vacuum” series
Archie suffered a near fatal accident on a motorway which some say lead to the
darker quality of his more recent work.
This is a tough
picture to interpret, is the artist saying perhaps “look I have a new cleaning
device” or is the whole thing a little more sinister? Is the subject maybe not
the cleaner but the hand and what it is pointing too? This could be the case,
as we don’t get the whole of the scenario from this shot, a theme common in his
work as he strived to be profound despite having a personality as shallow as my
grandmothers spit.
The first thing that strikes the eye upon viewing this piece is the almost painfully ironic way we see the vacuum that was the subject of much of Archie’s early work here among the trash, could this be some sort of revenge? Does he blame the “model” for his accident we mentioned earlier? Or is he trying to justify the fact he got run over by a car while vacuuming a motorway by transposing the blame to his “model”? Or could it be now he has moved on from what he wishes to be called his “Vacuum Period” (everyone else calls it his “playing silly-buggers” period) is the model he previously made a star is now cast aside like so much rubbish much as society is akin to do? Someone should really ask him what he thinks he’s playing at.
Well
what can be said about this piece, apart from the obvious, which has not been
said before by so many reviewers? I shall not lower my own standard by
repeating their comments. Instead I shall leave you to form your own opinion of
what has to be the work that has generated the most comment.
(Mostly “that’s crap” and “what? It’s a picture of a hose?”)
The title of this
piece says it all doesn’t it. The fear of anything modern, which lead some to
destroy that which they do not understand. There was a witness to the incident
which led to the creation of this piece of art, they are reported to have said
the following about it’s creation “Well it was serendipity really, windows
crashed again and he just lost it totally…it was all we could do to stop him
throwing out of the window, then he found the hammer…” – the source has asked
to remain anonymous.
(Thanks for that Dave, see I told we wouldn’t
show your name)
This is one of many self-portraits of the
artist (keeps the costs down after all) another one of his early works some say
he did it to prove he was “Paying his dues” as it were. Personally I think he
took it to try and prick the conscience (yeah right) of art critics and buyers
and in some respects it worked
(He
sold quite a few pictures after this)
I have
included this shot in this sample of works as a kind of acknowledgement of
Archie’s sense of humour (you recall the silly-buggers phase I mentioned
earlier – surely you do, come on people stay with me) this shot was taken to
silence his fiercest critics as if to say “If I was playing silly buggers I
would do this (that is throw my legs in the air and simulate masturbation)”
that or he was accusing his critics of being well versed in the art of self
abuse, why we didn’t interview him I will never know…
If
you would like to have your say: - send mail to paul1574@yahoo.com
