Sheffield - UNCLE

Features08.2408.24Artist Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press uses juxtaposition to promote global unity.

DISARM is a public artwork display from artist Fiona Banner commissioned by CIRCA in partnership with UNCLE. The creative itself has taken shape in multiple mediums since it’s creation, culminating in a showing on the digital screens of Piccadilly Circus. Known for their commercial content, these screens provide a powerful platform for a campaign focused on political and social commentary. It will be shown daily at 20:24pm (BST) on that screen, plus others globally until the 31^st August. To amplify the campaign’s message, we also facilitated a national flyposting showing, drawing attention and support for its agenda.

The artwork presents a striking juxtaposition: military aircrafts, typically associated with destruction, spelling out the word ‘DISARM’. This visual statement challenges viewers to reconsider the implications of military power and the often-unexamined nationalism associated with such displays. Whilst the roar of the planes and their formations can be thrilling and beautiful, they also are underscored by the stark realities of nationalistic pride and the obscenity of war. The aim of the artwork being to provoke thought and conversation about peace and excess, especially via the interconnectedness of nations across the globe that we hope strive for unity.

UNCLE conducted an in-depth interview with Fiona Banner to explore the full scope of the artwork’s concept. The conversation reveals the creative process behind the piece, its personal significance to the artist, and the inspirations that led to its creation.

WHAT IS THE CONCEPT SURROUNDING THIS SERIES OF WORK?

DISARM is on the mega screen at Piccadilly Circus, London – Piccadilly Lights… A super public intersection…It’s a public artwork that happens daily for 2 months.

DISARM takes from the viscerally and direct impact of a military flypast, its self a very public kind of performance, and subverts the usual jingoistic message of military power, so the planes in formation spell out the word DISARM.

A few times a year a flypast goes right over my studio. It’s weirdly exciting, such a brief moment of extreme weather, of obscene ego and nationalist folly, yes, but it also hits you viscerally, something about the planes high in the sky performing like that, is emotional, frightening… possibly beautiful.

We always rush out to see it when we hear the roar… then afterwards talk about how fucked it is. Lately they have been spelling out C R, the kings initials, things like that – hubris writ large.

Piccadilly circus spot is a centre of establishment in many ways, and the screen is top capitalism, in normal times it’s a constantly replicating quilt of unrequitable consumerist desire. The flypast is an interruption, or take over of that, it plays into that excessive and perverse energy – the word ‘disarm’ also refers to that excess, and our combative relationship with nature, as well the military.

The poster campaign goes long side that. Fly-posters for a fly-past…street posters are always animated because they are experienced in passing.

WHY IS THE WORD ‘DISARM’ FEATURED SO PROMINENTLY?

In spelling out the word DISARM, letter by letter, the airplanes are calling for their own demise, or emasculation at least. It’s is a moment where language meets its limits.

The work is grandiose as is a flypast, and not, disarm is a big word, and also a physical word, it also refers back to the domestic sphere of our own bodies, dis arm.

I was thinking that there is a naivety to making the statement ‘disarm!’, which is to say the word has become detached from its reality – how do you use that word in a way so that it redresses the cliché, or otherwise put so that the word speaks with impact, speaks its own complexity.

Addressing the biggest global Conference on Disarmament this year U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said “Something is very wrong if a disarmament conference leads to no meaningful disarmament, year after year.” The word has become taboo, and all we are taking about at the moment is ramping up arms. The arms industry is all about control, but it is out of control… It has become normalised.

There is very little proper public conversation around peace at the moment. Seems like a time to say Disarm!

HOW HAS THIS SERIES OF WORK DEVELOPED OVER TIME?

It started as a series of story boards or drawings, and then slowly got realised. It became clear to me the planes had to be from different, non-allied countries. D – Flying Leopard, I – Typhoon, S – Flanker, A – Falcon, R – Golden Eagle, M – Lightning, so there is contention in the medium of the language.

The action happens amongst the birds, the sky…the boredom of an undistinguished bucolic land scape… the sound coming first and waiting for the planes to erupt into the frame.

Like any flypast its uber boring and uber exciting…. Waiting and the excessive action, then waiting…. Plus there is the perversity that the planes are named after forces of nature… so we are looking at nature? I realised the suppleness of nature was an important antidote to the harsh roaring anti nature of the planes… the space between the letters that makes the word possible.

Years ago I made a series of works called Chinook. One involved a chinook performing a sky ballet at an air show. Perhaps I have been slowly making this work for a long time without realising it.

WHY ARE YOU OFTEN DRAWN TO THEMES OF MILITARY?

I grew up in one arms race, and then there was another around the time I started working properly as an artist. Cold wars were the wallpaper to growing up in the 70s and later 80s – our primitive dark side spelt out in high technology.

TELL US ABOUT THE COLLABORATION WITH CIRCA ART?

I got to know Josef O’Conner when he was thinking about starting Circa and he asked me to make something for Piccadilly Lights then. As time went on we agreed that it should be something active, a happening, something that implied, or called for, change. I had recently put massive full stop sculptures into the sea, with Greenpeace, part of an action against destructive fishing…and delivered another to the front door on DEFRA. Disarm is another bit of language in action, it plays into the public nature of Piccadilly Lights. Whilst I have been working on this different conflicts have flared up and the global context has changed. It has been hard to find a time when the work does not feel like a response to a specific context.

DID GROWING UP IN LIVERPOOL SHAPE YOUR CREATIVITY?

It’s hard to know these things. There is often an underside of humour, as a way of saying things in my work – something physical and connected with language… perhaps there is an element of bravado…

TELL US ABOUT SOME OF THE MOST PROMINENT MOMENTS IN YOUR CAREER? BEING FEATURED IN THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART OF BEING SHORTLISTED FOR THE TURNER PRIZE ETC…

Most prominent moments have been human… back room interactions… the making stuff… the linear cv, or career moments aren’t actually the big moments, I try to not make them my markers.

WHAT IMPACT DOES THE CITY OF LONDON HAVE ON YOUR WORK?

Sometimes it’s restrictive, sometimes it’s a release. The friction is important.

WHAT ARE SOME HIDDEN GEMS IN LONDON YOU LOVE?

The gaps and in-between bits, the community gardens…. lets protect them!

FAVOURITE THING ABOUT LIVING IN LONDON?

The mix of human voices and accents.

DOES CULTURE PLAY A KEY PART IN YOUR CREATIVITY?

Always by osmosis mainly. I am grateful to live now, but now is also shit in many ways…

WHAT DO YOU HOPE PEOPLE TAKE AWAY FROM THIS CAMPAIGN?

It may sometimes seem small or stupid, naive, but if you believe it find a way to say it.

Stand for change.

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Features12.2312.23UNCLE X flyingleaps collaborate to bring artist Magda Archer’s new work to the streets.

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UNCLE has teamed up with flyingleaps artists’ street poster project to deliver a bit of wry hope and critical humour to a wall near you. UNCLE selected a brand new and achingly topical artwork by Archer as their 2023 festive message: ‘WORLD PEACE IS COMING (otherwise we’re screwed!)’ will be on display across numerous UK towns and cities.

In some ways it’s a heart-warming image, especially if you appreciate the unconditional love dogs can give us. Okay, it’s the just the hormone linked to positive emotional states present in both dogs and humans but hey, the world could do with a great deal more unconditional love. Dogs don’t go around inventing reasons not to get on, but it’s a trait humans excel in.

Sometimes with just a few deft brushstrokes and her superbly honed gift for wit and economy with words, Archer makes art that addresses the terrifying ironies of existence. Her paintings and prints are kitsch meditations that sometimes make you want to hold your head in your hands and weep at the gross stupidity of humankind. And at other times wonder at the innocence, the solace, the capacity for empathy to overcome the worst of us. Her work can untap hope as well as warmly warn against slipping into cynical despair.

And she manages to do all the above without being po-faced, preachy, or didactic. This is amply borne out by the name and impetus behind her most recent exhibition. In connection with Archer’s current show – ‘I Don’t Know’ at Helm Gallery, Brighton (9.11.23 – 24.12.23) – the artist explained, “The title is a perfectly valid response to just about any question. Embracing uncertainty leaves you open to a much broader experience of life, a bigger picture. For me, not knowing doesn’t lead to anxiety, rather to a sense of calm and a re-setting of my head to all of life’s possibilities.”

As the artist has kindly let us use one of her most recent works as UNCLE’s festive message, we thought it would be a good idea to have a catch up and chat IRL. Q&A here we go…

COULD YOU TALK US THROUGH YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS?

I like to have ideas lying around, they’re in notebooks but I’ve also got a lot of scraps of paper with one line or an idea, I don’t know how it’s going to evolve but at some point an image will collide with the text. Usually the text comes first but not always.

AND HOW DO YOU HANDLE CRITICISM OF YOUR WORK, WHO’S FEEDBACK DO YOU VALUE?

Criticism!? I don’t hang around to hear it. I’m sure it’s out there. Actually, the only place I’d hear it is social media. You know, I’ve had some stray remarks, or the odd sour commentator. Once in a while if I see the same name, I’ll remove them. If it seems they’re just there for sport rather than wanting to engage with the work. Regarding feedback that I appreciate, there’s a couple of my friends, and my children.

WHAT INSPIRES YOU, KEEPS YOU MOTIVATED TO MAKE YOUR PAINTINGS? AND YOUR PRINTS? HOW DO YOU VIEW THEM IN COMPARISON TO YOUR PAINTINGS?

Inspiration wise, I think it’s the news, modern culture, all of what’s going on around me. To put it baldly, it’s difficult not to think of the prints as a way of making money to pay for the painting. Painting is just such a slow, slow burn. In a year I might sell four or five. Another year I might sell one. You can’t live on that sort of money. Unless you’re super successful. But I was thinking earlier today, in a way not achieving huge financial success as an artist has been good for me. The way I think of my career is, I don’t want to use the word ‘failure’, but I’m certainly not up there with some of my male contemporaries. But, as I say, on reflection that’s probably been good for the way I think and the way I make stuff, because it doesn’t get in the way. I haven’t got a lot of money to think about. But then I don’t want to be on the phone to my accountant every day, being bothered with that, so there’s upsides.

HOW DO YOU HANDLE PROJECT DEADLINES AND TIME MANAGEMENT?

I’m very good at that, you know, everything else might be chaos, my studio is chaos a lot of the time. Deadlines? I think because I spent ten years as an illustrator, unhappily as an illustrator, I can do a deadline.

What’s been your experience of the business side of being an artist, dealing with people in that regard?

Well, in a word, it’s been tricky. Bloody tricky. I’ve had problems where people don’t want to pay me. And I’ve had problems where I know at the time I’m being ripped off, and then I discover a couple of years down the line you realise, no, you were really, royally ripped off. It’s quite a rare thing when someone comes to you and says, I really like your work and I want to be honest financially. Actually, it’s quite nice when people say, I haven’t got any money to give you but I want to use your work on this. It’s when people are underhand, I won’t name names but it’s a wind-up. So, it’s happened, and it keeps happening.

To offer some context, back-end of 2022 Magda had to finally sue several companies who were reproducing her work without permission. She won all the cases, but she explained this had been an emotionally and financially draining process. Obviously winning meant being awarded costs but there was very little by way of compensation.

You’ve recently teamed up with Jo Brooks PR – who works with Banksy, Lucy Sparrow (aka @sewyoursoul), David Shrigley, etc. – how do hope that will develop?

Well, if you read the small print as it were, Jo does the PR for Banksy and Shrigley but with Lucy and myself she’s our manager. And, as far as I know, she only manages female artists. How do I think it’s going to go? I think very well. Because she’s honest and a good person. And she’s funny.

HOW DO YOU BALANCE YOUR ART CONCERNS, ARTISTIC INTEGRITY IF YOU LIKE, AGAINST COMMERCIAL PRESSURES WHEN IT COMES TO COLLABORATING WITH OTHER PARTIES: FASHION DESIGNERS, BOOKS, MERCH., ETC.?

I’d say with the Marc Jacobs collaboration it went very well, they were very sensitive about how I felt, constantly saying, ‘What did I think about this, what did I think about that?’ If I didn’t like something, they’d take it out. Without any fuss. And the Idles book, Joe Talbot just said, ‘Do what you want.’ I didn’t believe him. Because people never really mean that, they say, ‘Do what you want, do what you want…’ But then they come back and say, ‘Ooh yeah, but don’t do that!’ No, I had to keep checking with Joe and he kept saying, ‘I like it all.’ Which you don’t hear very much, so you don’t believe it. Now the book’s out, and it looks great. I’ve described it as having like a ‘ready brek glow’, the imagery and lyrics resonate.

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT A PARTICULARLY CHALLENGING PROJECT AND WHAT YOU LEARNED FROM IT?

Well, again that would be the many years of illustration work, that’s why I’m not an illustrator, because I hated it. It’s just people pushing you around, grabbing the work and not even saying ‘goodbye’ or ‘thank you.’

HOW DO YOU HANDLE CREATIVE BLOCKS OR MOMENTS OF SELF-DOUBT?

I don’t have creative blocks. I might have a time, a period, when I feel flat emotionally. It might be exhaustion, it might be things that are kicking off around me with friends or family. And because I don’t particularly want to work with all these thoughts, I stop. I might still be in my studio every day, but I will stop making.

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT A PROJECT OR PIECE OF WORK THAT YOU’RE PARTICULARLY PROUD OF?

I’m proud that I’m still doing it. You know, what with all the other responsibilities of being a mother, running a home, you know, laundry, kids’ problems, blah, blah, blah. But despite it all I’m proud of myself for persisting.

You’ve collaborated w. flyingleaps artists’ street poster project several times since 2016 and this year your ‘WORLD PEACE IS COMING (otherwise we’re screwed)’ work’s been chosen as UNCLE’s festive message to the nation… What would you say about flyposting as a medium to show your art?

It’s become a favourite medium. Because, well, I’m not going to say it’s a leveller, and it’s a cliché to say it’s the street as art gallery but it is. People are not intimidated as they might be going into a fancy gallery. It’s there, and it’s public, and it’s sort of a bit ‘shouty’. I can’t fault the medium. I love it. I think it’s a collision between my background in graphic design and my wish to be considered a serious artist.

FINALLY, HOPES, DREAMS, AMBITIONS FOR 2024 AND BEYOND…?

Ooh, mmm. I want to make some music. And I want to, there’s a few things I want to do. I’ve got a new keyboard and I want to master that. Also, I want to do something else, and I want to say performance art, but it is, and it isn’t. More things that aren’t painting or print making but will have my physical presence as part of the piece. I want to do things that I’m a bit frightened of. I’d like to try and tackle the subject of ‘wonder’ creatively, like Yoko Ono.

So, whether it’s paintings, prints, collaborations with cool musicians and fashion designers, making more of her own music or the mysterious proposed move into work that will feature the artist in some way, Magda Archer it seems will go on challenging herself while at the same time continuing to delight, intrigue and provoke an ever-growing audience for her art. And, of course, with all that we wish her well.

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Features08.2312.23JV Aranda uses collage to bring quirky designs to live in collaboration with Horrox.

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Horrox is not a brand that exclusively pulls from the past but also the present, with some of its most prominent pieces being collaborations with artists and charities. In continuation of UNCLE’s partnership with Horrox we put a spotlight on one of these collaborators. JV Aranda, an artist based in San Francisco uses a mixture of colour, printing and repetition to make an impact with his graphic designs. His playful graphics prioritise impactful, layered motifs that are reminiscent of a pop art and dadaism which seemed a fitting match for the first collaboration of Horrox as the brand also borrows from the past for its creative direction. We took a spotlight and enquired about how his contemporary techniques and style have developed as he’s grown as a creator.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO ART? 

Fortuitous museum visits during my formative years. For instance, in 1998, while on a trip to Los Angeles to celebrate my 16th birthday, I had the good fortune of being introduced to the work of Yayoi Kusama via a retrospective exhibition of her work at LACMA, which was mind-blowing and incredibly influential in a multitude of ways: from her enthusiastic experimentation across different mediums to how her practice overlapped with her mental health, nationality, gender, era, and pure intuitive visual talent. Her work has always served as a wonderful example of the limitlessness of Art as a storytelling device and her resilience and prolific output continues to be an inspiration.

WHY COLLAGE? 

Collage was always a medium that just made sense to me since first being introduced to it at school. The materials needed were accessible and the process of destruction, manipulation and reinvention has always felt liberating and cathartic.

Additionally, with the amount of content being generated daily in this day and age, Collage has grown in importance as a method to utilise the world’s growing collective archive, showcasing and re-contextualising imagery that would otherwise be ignored or forgotten.

DESCRIBE YOUR DESIGN PROCESS? 

It’s a mix of following my intuition and problem-solving. I’ve always loved being commissioned and receiving a brief to interpret with various constraints to meet. So the design process can vary due to the project at hand, and my favourite experiences have been the ones that allowed me the opportunity to widen my scope and try new things, like working with Horrox, which gave me the chance to use the comic-strip panel format as a structural device and incorporate speech bubbles in my work for the first time.

WHAT IS THE THING YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT BEING AN ARTIST? 

I love how artwork can form a life of its own while retaining that psychic link to its creator, who essentially become visually invisible when the work is finished. As a Queer, Person of Colour, creating artwork feels like one of the few realms in which I’m not immediately judged by any of my physical or sociological attributes, though my work is always representative of all of those things purely from being filtered through my vantage point.

TELL US MORE ABOUT THE COLLABORATION WITH HORROX?

Legs somehow found my work out there in the ether and got in touch with her vision for the prints that she had wanted to commission for Horrox. I was enthused after being introduced to her work and learning where she wanted to go conceptually with the prints and was pleasantly surprised to discover the strange parallels we had with one another; Namely that I was an American living in the U.K. at the time and that she was British and living and working in my home state of California.

WHY ARE YOU DRAWN TO USING COMIC STRIPS IN YOUR WORK?

When working with Comics, I’ve primarily been drawn to utilising work from the Golden Age of American comics, which spans from the 1940’s and 50’s, since I not only enjoy the aesthetics of that era but additionally have gotten a kick out of re-contextualising work that was originally found in arguably quite wholesome environments, and reconfiguring the work with more modern narratives that reflect our current realities and collective discourse.

HOW HAS CALIFORNIA AND LONDON INFLUENCED YOUR WORK?

Growing up in California, I was surrounded by pop culture and the grandeur of nature. I was essentially raised by cartoons and theme parks. And I’ve often felt that the hyper-saturated colour palette of my work is very much informed by being a Californian. Living in London was quite a contrast and helped me realize that pursuing the arts was not only valid but important, and it was incredibly inspiring to be in such a global and diverse city, absorbing such a range of stories. My work may be incredibly influenced by California conceptually, but I learned how to become an artist thanks to London.

HOW HAS SAN FRANCISCO HELPED SHAPED YOU AS A DESIGNER?

When Legs got in touch about the commission, I was living in London and when she mentioned she was based in San Francisco at the time and wanted the prints to reflect the city and it’s musical history, specifically during the Jazz age, I was absolutely delighted as a former San Franciscan, previously living there for a number of years in the early 2000’s, back before I even realized I was an Artist and Designer. So, I’d say my time in San Francisco planted a lot of seeds, that still grow to this day. There’s an organized chaos to the city, or rather, a battle between structure and hedonism, that definitely shapes my work.

DOES THE CITY INSPIRE YOU?

Absolutely. Living in San Francisco was my first experience as a young adult with the wonder and perils of embracing spontaneity. I was raised in San Diego, which is very much a car-based city, so it was quite liberating living in San Francisco, which is much more pedestrian friendly. I’ve always been inspired just walking around the city and getting immersed with the different personalities of both the different neighbourhoods and the characters who happen to be around on any given day.

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVOURITE PLACES THERE?

I’m biased towards the neighbourhoods I previously lived in: the Castro and the Mission, which includes my absolute favourite place in the city, smack dab in the middle of those areas: Mission Dolores Park, which is situated on an incline with a gorgeous view of Downtown San Francisco, and has been the setting of many meditative walks, sunny celebrations and heartfelt conversations with loved ones in the past.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU?

More Collages! Currently, I work as an Editorial illustrator for a variety of clients. Most recently, I’ve been working with the esteemed American automobile magazine, Road & Track, creating collages for a column called the ‘Department of Overthinking’ and I’ve also begun to participate in different art fairs, showcasing all of the different adaptations of my Collage work, in preparation of opening Sinewy Sea Fine Art, which will be a hybrid of an Arts Space, Tea Lounge and Gift Shop, showcasing modern curiosities and storytelling, to be based in San Diego.