Desperate Measures

The research field is creative practice that makes social commentary through the use of the absurd.

Absurdity as a means of protest has become a common oddity of everyday life. Fathers wear ‘superman’ costumes to climb bridges campaigning for more access to their children. University lecturers dress as apes demonstrating for better conditions of service. An MP enters the ‘Big Brother’ house, joins in the games and thereby politicises the programme.

‘Desperate Measures’ is a painting that depicts runners dressed in ‘silly’ costumes reaching the 21 mile mark of the 2005 London Marathon. The research comprised developing a means of supporting and endorsing charitable work through creative practice that avoided condescension but at the same time highlighted the ‘desperate measures’ that many charitable organisations feel obliged to adopt in order to raise funds for their work. The painting therefore directly pictures the marathon runners but more obliquely draws attention to social injustices.

It is a companion piece to another ‘Save the Kidz’ work which was exhibited elsewhere in Très Riches Heures in 2006.

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