Conrad Atkinson: Mining Culture, Gone With The Wind And New Works
20 November - 8 January (closed Dec 24 -Jan 3).
Bluecoat Gallery, School Lane, Liverpool L1 3BX 0151 709 5689
Gallery open Tuesday - Saturday 10.30am - 5.00pm. Admission Free
‘Art and bombs are full of interesting resonances´
As the debate continues about a suitable monument to Princess Diana, one artist has already created his tribute. Conrad Atkinson, the official artist of the US Campaign to Ban Land Mines, has made several artworks which are a tribute to Princess Diana, who did so much to raise awareness of the issue.
One piece - a ceramic landmine bearing an image of the princess - was planned to be presented to Diana by the US Campaign to Ban Landmines, but tragic events intervened. Atkinson´s works are almost anti-monuments, not the traditional massive public pieces but small, lightweight, transient and beautiful.
Conrad´s campaigning work continues, and an exhibition of his landmine art and other work can be seen at the Bluecoat Gallery. Pieces using Gone With The Wind as a metaphor for the issues surrounding Diana and landmines were made specifically for showing in Atlanta in 1998. Landmines were invented in Atlanta during the American Civil War - the setting for Gone With The Wind - and raised the same questions then as they continue to raise now: several generals of the day declared them immoral.
Conrad Atkinson has been at the forefront of radical art for almost three decades, producing works that use the tools of authority and mass media to debate issues like nuclear power, exploitation and corruption, media stars, international military conflict.
He says: ‘one of the things that interests me today is weapons technology and the issue of landmines in huge areas of the world. Someone worked out that it will take 1000 years to get rid of these land mines. It is an issue that I want to use as a metaphor for how culture works, and to point out that a culture which produces bombs also produces the art which we see in our museums. Art and bombs are full of interesting resonances.´
The issue of landmines has been a major element in his work since his acclaimed Carlisle show Transient (1996), when he coined the pun ‘mining culture´. It has continued through recent exhibitions in New York and Atlanta. New venue-specific works have been created for Liverpool.
Conrad Atkinson
Along with the work at the Bluecoat, the exhibition also includes land mines on show at the Walker Art Gallery - which carry images from the gallery´s collections - as well as a special Liverpool Football Club shirt,embroidered with a silhouette of a land mine, which is on display at Liverpool Football Club Museum and Visitor Centre.
When placed alongside the cultural objects in museum collections the land mines, says Atkinson: ‘act as a metaphor and analogy for many contemporary issues. In a postmodern scenario they are not simply weapons of destruction but they also tell us something about our culture. They are the globalisation of culture as much as the golden arches of MacDonald´s.´
Born in Cleator Moor, Cumbria, Atkinson studied at Liverpool Art School and the Royal Academy School. He is a professor of art at the University of California, Davis.
Following Liverpool, the exhibition will tour nationally.
For further information please contact Penny Kiley or Cherylee O´Shaughnessey
on 0151 709 5297 or e-mail <bluecoat-at-dircon-co-uk>
Notes to editors:
Walker Art Gallery
Ceramic landmines have been incorporated into the displays of the Walker Art Gallery. Atkinson, who is official artist of the US Campaign to Band Landmines (Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation) has placed ceramic landmines in galleries worldwide. His mines are based on two types: the Valmara, an Italian make, and a Russian version of a Chinese landmine.
For the Walker, Atkinson has decorated one group of mines with images of works in the gallery´s collection. The defenceless and the innocent - mothers with their children, young people setting out on life´s journey - figure prominently. In another time, another place, these are victims of landmines. Three of the landmines are decorated with more allusive images, including the face of the late Princess Diana, who worked hard to bring the issue of landmines to the forefront of public awareness.
Liverpool Football Club
Atkinson has also produced a special Liverpool Football Club shirt, embroidered with the silhouette of a landmine. This is on show at LFC´s Museum and Visitor Centre. Footballer David Ginola is also a supporter of the Campaign to Band Landmines. Another football shirt will be on display at the Bluecoat, along with a football scarf, both decorated with landmines.
Bluecoat
Works at the Bluecoat include:
Landescape - a photomontage series originally made for the escalators of Euston railway station.
Gold Standard - a pair of trousers printed with golden mines
Ruby Slippers - 48 pairs of red glitter boots and shoes arranged in a spiral Ten Steps To Heaven - gold painted ladder and ceramic landmines
Twelve Oaks - installation about land ownership and land mines, superimposing references to Princess Diana on imagery from Gone With The Wind.
New work which transposes images of women and children from the 19th century works in the Walker into the Bluecoat gallery.
Conrad Atkinson´s work is shown courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Art New York
