Revolutionary Poster #1

My goal was to create something that, as Lee Ufan describes in his essay ‘the Art of Encounter’, would open a space that ‘eliminates everydayness and arouses fresh perceptions’

I thought how puzzles take their players out of the everyday, and how my own acts of protest have given me a different perspective on how people behave when they encounter someone who is doing something outside of a society norm.

I titled the work ‘revolutionary’ for a number of layered reasons. It is based on the 19th century educationalist Friedrich Froebel’s kindergarten ‘gifts’ which revolutionised the way children learned logic, reasoning and spatial awareness. The backdrop is the revolutionary painting ‘The Talisman’ by Paul Serusier - perhaps the first time an artist painted blocks of colour to represent an abstract landscape.

I painted 140 separate pieces of birch plywood to make the picture and the act of adding graffiti marks to my own painstaking painting felt like an act of protest. The marks are revolutionary slogans which emerge when the pieces are revolved. I’ve never seen another puzzle of this type, so perhaps, in a small way it is in itself revolutionary.

The work is installed at West Dean College of Arts and Conservation in the Oak Hall where surrealist artists played and experimented. This resonates with the surprise and unpredictability which is inherent in the puzzle.