15 Minutes

Yep, I got another 15 minutes of fame today! Apparently my work on the King Harry Ferry has been causing a bit of "controversy", which I was blissfully unaware of until last night when I was asked if I would talk to Westcountry TV this morning to discuss it! Aside from the fact that some people just don't want to look at portrayals of dead and decaying birds on their short journey across the water ("where have the nice landscape photographs gone?"), there have been questions as to whether the content is suitable for children... I was bemused by this since my own lovely son can't contain his excitement whenever he finds another poor specimen for me to draw, or drown in wax.

Seeing the images again today I can see why people were making some disgruntled noises, but they just have to look around them to see death and decay in the hedgerows they drive beside everyday - if only they'd take the time to look. And I guess that's the point: we just don't look. In fact we probably turn away. I doubt that anyone in a museum looking at a Baroque painting of a hunting scene or piles of game birds in the pantry would give it a second thought; they'd probably be waxing lyrical about how fantastically rendered the decaying flesh was . So why the concern over my drawings I wondered. I think it's probably got as much to do with the context in which they're shown as anything else. First of all they're a captive audience - they didn't choose to go on the ferry to look at art, it just happens to be there; loads of the ferry goers will be holiday makers too, so they're probably more interested in 'pretty pictures' than anyone else, and will complain when they don't get them (my assumption!) and finally I think people are just too plain conservative and don't want to look at anything that they might actually have to think about - and these drawings make them confront that, which I think is a good thing. And so does the owner of the ferry company apparently: asked if they would prefer the exhibition to be taken down he said "no, art is about creating debate". A man after my own heart!

The interview is planned to go out on Westcountry news at 11 and 6 o'clock tomorrow with opinion from ferry-goers and the ferry company too. (There may be some difficulty seeing it in the Falmouth area though as the town receives the Plymouth signal!!)