The Brexit Plan

This series was done during the time the UK was deciding whether to stay or leave the European Union. Ironically, what was going on in the UK seemed to inspire Donald Trump and the USA which I found bizarre. I felt like the UK and the USA were becoming an insane asylums.

In order for me to stay mentally healthy, I started making paintings having taken inspiration from the DADA movement. These paintings were created using original old posters from “failed” movies or “fake” reprints of successful ones. I worked on this project for about 18 months and created over 60 works as part of it, each bringing a unique and current dimension to what is going on in the real world.

Each painting was questioning what was it that the world appeared and still appears to be crying out for? In some ways I felt it was identity people were searching for. If that were the case then what in fact was a person’s identity? Could it really be as simplistic as nationalism/politics (insert arbitrary grouping ad nauseam here)?

I was born in Scotland to Polish parents. I spoke Polish at home, and English everywhere else. My Mother was a war orphan and had her family wiped out in WW2 my Father and his Father had been Soldiers in the Polish army. I grew up living a sort of no-man’s-land existence, I was never fully Scottish/British, having no ancestral or genetic connection to this island nor was I Polish as I wasn’t born there. I have therefore always seen myself as European and wanted the UK to remain part of the EU. I believe we are far stronger and, well, just better together when people see themselves as humans and not by ethnicity/religion (insert arbitrary grouping ad nauseam here).