To clarify: From the start, this post has nothing to do with ‘Animal Farm’, its author George Orwell or indeed much if anything to do with politics. It does however have a lot to do with pigs, people and to some extent definitions of what is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad’. Fear not though, neither will I be getting too philosophical or start digressing into a discussion on ethics. What’s it all about? ‘Snout and about’ of course: “The public art project with a twist in its tail!”
Launched this Monday in the Orchard Shopping Centre and
former ‘home’ to the wooden pig seats me and Michael Fairfax unveiled the pigs
along with their new look to the people of Taunton. The, ‘twist in its tail’
that the project title refers to is that the original pig seats have been
altered lest they be left to languish in a store room in the shopping centre
rotting, gathering dust and in some cases, falling to bits. The other ‘twist’, perhaps,
is that who could have predicted the reaction they would receive sparking some
strong opinions of a ‘marmite’ nature. Or then again, to cause such a stir, a
debate, ‘delight’ or ‘outrage’ may be exactly the point that was intended. Reactions from, ‘Fit for the bonfire’ to ‘Drop them off at the
recycle centre when you've done with them’, ‘They looked better when they were
covered in pigeon mess’ and ‘This reminds me of the Italian woman destroying
the Jesus painting’ to ‘21st Century makeover for 21st
Century pigs’, ‘Love it or hate it that’s the beauty of art’ and ‘Awesome! I
love them!’
Wow!
“Welcome to the world of public art,” I tell myself. Still, could have been
worse, they might have received no reaction at all. Besides, and it is
important to stress, that these pigs are no longer functioning as they did as
seats. They’ve not been designed with sitting in mind or to be aesthetically in-keeping
with a particular location operating in the way that public seating is supposed
to do. Love or hate them, they’ve been turned into ‘art’ objects that are to be
auctioned for charity then after their purpose or destiny is a mystery yet to
be defined.
What are my thoughts, well I think it would have been
naive to think that covering one of Taunton’s beloved pig seats in collaged
images of tools wasn’t going to promote some accusations of ‘vandalism’ or
desecration. In fact, admittedly on a regular basis I commit the act of
desecrating sheets of brilliant white paper with drawings, scribbles and
doodles. I too, am long aware of the sentimentality and, as ridiculous as it
may sound to some, ‘icon-like’ status that the pig seats in their original
condition had (for let’s put it in perspective, they were only seats and not a unique commissioned piece of
artwork). I grew-up in Taunton and have great fondness for the pigs and toads
which is why the decision to ‘do’ something with the pig seats as to leaving
them to rot and eventually be thrown away could only be seen as a positive
thing from my point of view (baring in
mind I was also doing this for free). So much so, that my original reaction was
‘to auction them as they are’, that was until I saw the state they were in at
least! When talking about restoration is it about restoring something back that
was lost, preserving what is already there or re-enacting what something would
have looked like when new? Or is it better to create something entirely new and
use an act of destruction in order to recreate or transform? Therein lays the
debate as to what would have been a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ use of the pig seats.
Personally, I’d like to think my intervention sits somewhere between the two,
restoring what was once there and additionally changing it to make it into something
new, leaving my mark so to speak. Or to reiterate what I said in the guide
book;
“I
have adorned my pig with collaged images of hand tools. Featured are images of
tools used in farming past and present which I hope create an association that
alludes to the history of Taunton as a market town. I wanted to remain
sensitive to the original design of the pig as I saw my role as one of
preserving as well as restoring the original seat that I had grown up with.
Much time, love and care was spent cleaning, polishing and staining the wood
before collaging the tools onto its surface. The level of reverence and respect
that has been demonstrated in restoring the pig echoes the treatment,
appreciation and awe I have towards tools as the inspiration in my own art
practice. I wanted very much to retain the original recognisability of the pig
seat as an icon of my own and many others childhoods whilst giving it a new
look as an art object that left my own mark, as an artist but still had an
association with the agricultural context of Taunton’s market history.”
So if, ‘Four legs good’ is the pigs and ‘two legs’ bad is
us, (the humans) then perhaps there is an irony in that quote that is similar
to the reaction towards our (the artists) intervention with the pigs. Maybe we
should have left the pigs alone and succumb to their own ends, they may have
started a revolution and created a political upheaval before in a megalomaniacal
reverse in fortune become the makers of their own undoing. But then again,
maybe they are just pig shaped blocks of wood that had it not been for our
involvement would have been on three legs and quite frankly on their last legs!
Or who knows, could have even eventually found their way into Tesco frozen beef lasagne!
