MEANINGLESS MUSINGS OF A RELUCTANT RE-CONSTRUCTIVIST or (I can do anything I like - I'm eccentric) - autoerotic assemblages, inappropriate appropriations & recalcitrant remolitions. 

Fane Flaws - Black Barn Gallery - 2nd May - 21th May 2006

I had recently demolished an old shed and while loading the trailer up with the debris, I realised that some of it was so beautiful I could not throw it away. I began reassembling the junk and found I had several complete works, that I mounted on bits of the demolished walls and found they went nicely into some old empty frames. Then I was away. I sifted thru boxes of old taps and latches from my father's workshop, trawled the second hand shops and recyclers and began making a series of self portraits and other characters. I was aware that it was nothing new, and that Frank Womble for one had done some wonderful work in this area, but I became obsessed with reassembling the junk.

Then I started looking at some of the old timber from the demolition I had stashed around the backyard. The found colourways were unusual and I began to assemble them into striped abstract and mount them on plywood backings. I found gorgeous colour combinations wich I would never mix myself and began pushing my own uptight colour aesthetic in new directions. I called these 'Abstracts in Striped Paint' and later 'Remolitions' after the process of reuing demolished material. The show includecd the first 'Flags Of Nowhere' and a timber and paint construction made from working drawings called 'Self Portrait With Primitive Subconscious' which featured the very first 'ID' - an icon explored intensely in later work.

The whole thing came together in a flurry of activity and instead of exhibiting paintings as I had intended, I put up this strange collection of autoerotic assemblages, inappropriate appropriations & recalcitrant remolitions and made a manifesto painting which stated -"I can do anything I like - I'm eccentric".

Fane Flaws 2012