Martin Firrell is a Franco-British public artist long associated with the international out-of-home industry. His works challenge unjust power systems of all kinds,
including patriarchal power, the oppression of women and non-heterosexuals, and the heteronormative status quo. He uses language to engage
directly with the public, provoking dialogue about more equitable social organisation. The
artist's reported aim is 'to make the world more humane'. His work has been summarised
as 'art as debate'.
Helen's space odyssey began in Sheffield. She was the first woman ever to visit the Mir space station. This artwork highlights the idea that it makes no difference where you start off from; it's where you end up that matters.
All power must come to an end, in the end. It makes no difference who holds it. The temporariness of power limits its use and the potential for misuse. Anyone in power would do well to be mindful of the inherent precariousness of their position.
In a military conflict, women and children are particularly at risk.
They'll Find You Nude
describes the disruption of domestic
life and the ever-present risk of violence or uninvited sexual attention experienced by one woman during a South-American military coup.
'Cod Wars' broke out between the UK and Iceland in 1972 - the same year the UK's first Gay Pride march took place. To herald UK Pride's 50th anniversary year,
Cod Wars Turned Me Gay
lampoons the idea, prevalent in the 1970s, that someone could be turned gay, in this case by the sight of burly trawlermen in dispute over fishing rights.
New legislation, allowing TV companies to broadcast during the day, was passed in 1972 - the same year the first Gay Pride march took place in the UK. To herald UK Pride's 50th anniversary year,
Daytime TV Made Me Lesbian
satirises the ludicrous idea, common in the 1970s, that someone could be turned lesbian, in this case by the sight of glossy daytime TV presenters.
Radical Lesbian feminists of the 60s and 70s suggested there was only one way for a woman to escape
male control: embrace lesbianism as a political rather than a personal act. Feminists argued this would undermine the social structures
that traditionally place men at the top of the social hierarchy.
The Gallery is the brainchild of arts producers Artichoke and public artist Martin Firrell. It can be thought of as an 'alternative national gallery' with no walls to hold the artworks in, or to keep anyone out.
Firrell's artwork for The Gallery
What Oppresses Us
quotes from French feminist theory of the 1970s: any oppressor, by definition, has the power to shape all of the responses of the oppressed, including what the oppressed come to regard as erotic or desirable.
A 1947 public information film advises young people how to be popular, largely by conforming to conventional
gender roles and parental authority. The artist reorganises the material to subvert the heteronormative assumptions of the film's
narration, queering the protagonists so that the 'boy meets girl' story takes a distinctly different turn.
asked theologians, scientists, artists, atheists,
and the general public, 'What makes your life meaningful?' Wildly diverse answers,
from the domestic to the sexual to the sublime, were projected onto the Dome, West Front and Whispering
Gallery to mark the cathedral's 300th anniversary.
sun not despair (schematic)
2008
sun (in arabic)
2008
The Taking of Christ (Carravagio)
c.1602
A kiss
2008
Design for st Paul's shop paper bags
2008
Life reaches out to life (arabic)
2008
All Men Are Dangerous
2006
Medium
Projection
Displayed
Duveen Galleries, Tate Britain, February 2006
All Men Are Dangerous
was created for the Duveen Galleries at Tate Britain at a time when wars were
ongoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both conflicts were widely held to be colonially motivated
and against international law.
again, on billboards, in 2019. This time, the 'dangerousness' referred to might be subtle and diffuse like the risk-taking that caused the financial crisis in 2008 or the gathering threat of climate change. Or it may point to the immediate and visceral dangers of anger, retribution and war.
was created during the artist's residency with the Household Division of the British Army. The artwork reflects the views of military personnel (who regard military intervention as a last resort) and the artist's conversations with British philosopher A.C. Grayling.
In October 1967, The Mobe (National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam) organised an anti-war march in the USA to include the exorcism and levitation of the Pentagon. Rituals and mantras would make the Pentagon rise 100 feet into the air, turn orange and vibrate. Allen Ginsberg described the levitation as a 'happening that undermined, psychologically, the authority of the Pentagon'.
echoes the more colourful 'Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity' (anti-Vietnam war placard, 1969). The attempt to eliminate war with war is, of course, nonsensical. Both Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela teach that radically different strategies are required. The counter culture movement embodied the ideal that the route to peace was peace itself.
Recent legislation has led to far-reaching restrictions on the right to peaceful protest. But liberty dies where there is agreement without thought or argument. This artwork highlights protest's significance as a guarantor of freedom. If nothing can be contested, is freedom any longer present and actual?