The Summer Pots: Summer Rain, 2017, currently showing at Gallery 286, 286 Earl's Court Road, London SW5 9AS June 8th - 30th 2017

The Summer Pots at Gallery 286

A burst of sunshine illuminates a torrential summer rain and umbrellas in Oxford Street.

Ther is far less scrafitto on this pot than in earlier works. This one is almost all brush work.

Earthenware pot, coil built, approx 62cms high, slip-painted with clear glaze.

Politicians, Preachers, Prophets, Protesters: Five jugs in 'Ideas Worth Fighting For,' 17th-23rd, October 2016, at the People's History Museum, Manchester.

The Ballad of Gorgeous George, (2015)

Meet my friend George Galloway, 
He worships Ayatollahs
He genuflects to Ba'athists
And he LOVEs the Hezbollollahs.
He entertains his Islamists in a purple leotard,
He's not much good at pussy
But he licks cream good and hard.
OH Galloway's coming to London,
He wants to be the mayor,
Anjem's lot'll love him up
But he doesn't stand a prayer.
When we've thrown him out London, 
He's off to Liverpool,
He's buggerd off from Bradford, 
No one wants him, bloody fool. 

How the Prophet was driven to drink (2015)

And it came to pass
In the land of the Assyrians and Babylonians
That a vile scourge of Ba'athists, Islamists and Barbarians
Did invade and ransack the ancient places.
Bloody was the conquest.
And though the fields were fed with the people's blood
Yet did they yield forth nothing
But more food for vultures.
And even the mighty seas were in tumult
Devouring small boats
Spewing forth corpses
Leaving terror in the hearts of those that reached land.
Verily the prophet did rage at the carnage
Crying out in despair:
"You bastards!" He thundered.
"Goddam! Don't you gettit, you arseholes?
It's fiction!
I lied about gays, about Jews, and addiction.
I don't care who you love, how you worship, or feast.
Eat and drink! Wine or cider! But for fuck's sake, live in peace!" 

Cider Party for the Corbynati, (2015) 

Jeremy Corbyn
Likes it cosy
His beard and bonnet
A little bit posy?
Perhaps his glasses are tinted rosy,
His politics are Crap.

He's a great admirer of Hamas
Khaled Meshal is his friend.
In bed with Hezbollah
Sir Hasan Nasrullah
Doth ram-rod his glistening rear end.

So watch it if you're arty
And offend the Shariati
Or blaspheme the Cornbynati
You'll feel the force of their knee-cap

And mind if Corbyn wins the day
If you're a Jew, or if you're gay
Because jihadis want their pay
And he's a squirming in their lap.

So soddit let's just have a party
Proper Bacchanaliati
Lest Cobyn's sychophantiati
Turn off our cider tap!

Stop The War, jug, (2015)

Stop the War!
Protest in a tweet,
Kiss Assad's arse,
Prostrate at Putin's feet.
Salute the Ayatollahs,
Appease the Caliphate,
It's Israel and America
We all love to hate. 

John McDonnell's Farm, jug, (2015)

John McDonell had a farm,
Eee Aye Eee Aye Oh.
And on the farm he planted cash,
but it wouldn't grow.
With a deficit here
And a printer there
And quantitive easing everywhere,
With normal times here
And special times there
Borrowing and spending and selling off shares,
With Osbornes here
And Camerons there,
And Tory porkers hogging the air,
With campaigns here
And protests there
and Corbyistas tearing their hair,
Poor Jonny 'Donnell's printer jammed.
His farm just had to go. 

Calipahte Seaside jug, (2015)

We are all
Stop-Start a War
HamaHezbolicious!
Come and join us at the seaside
In Islamocalificious!
We think you'll find the food out here 

is really quite delcious
The weather, beach and swimming, dear, 

is always beneficious.
Bit it's beheading infidels, my dear,
The rape, and crucificious,
That's what makes the Caliphate,
the Best Vacationicious. 

Land and Skyscapes at the Contemporary Ceramics Centre, August -November, 2016

Five pieces showing as part of the Autumn Rotation at the Contemporary Ceramics Centre, opposite the British Museum, from August 1st - November 1st 2016. From the top: Hordley Swamp, (2016), 35 cms diam. Wootton Floods, (2016), 35 cms diam. London, Sledging at Broadwater Farm, (2015), 50cms diam. London, Autumn Fair, Hyde Park, (2015), 40 cms diam. Sun Setting After A Storm, London, Late Summer, (2015). 35 cms diam. All of these are shallow dishes, pinch-pots, slip-painted earthenware with scraffitto, and clear glaze. Top two are photographed by me, the bottom three are photographed by Sylvain Deleu.

Bring on the Baroque! Featuring, (from top): Nightwalker, Postcard from the Caliphate, (two views), The Prophet Expels Isis, (in kiln), Caliphate Jug, Galloway Jug.

These pots, and more of the jugs and smaller works, will be on show at Gallery 286, Earls Court Road, London, November 8th - 30th, 2016.
Molly's Odyssey will be showing in the upstairs gallery and these ones will be downstairs.

The Prophet Expels ISIS From Babylon (and ushers in the dancers) 2016. Work in progress, studio view.

With any luck, one of those thunderbolts will land on Putin too.

New and Recent work - These pots will be shown in 'Hidden', 6 Mason's Yard, SW1Y 6BU, September 2016, and at GAllery 286, Earls Court Road, SW5 9AS, November 2016

From the Top
Nightwalker, (2014)
Travelling West, (2013),
WW1 1915-6, Ararat to Albania, (2015),
Me with 'Drinking Hemlock' (2015), Postcard from the Caliphate in the background,
Me with Drinking Song for GAlloway, (2015,) as above,
Postcard from the Caliphate, (2016)
Postcard from the Caliphate, (2016)

Danse Macabre or Postcard From The Caliphate, (2015-16)

Danse Macabre / Postcard From The Caliphate, (2015-16)

This pot is all but finished. It has yet to be professionally photographed, and still lacks the lustre firing that will deepen some of the reds and help to vary the local colour and colour saturation.

No one likes Islamic State, or ISIL or The Caliphate, or whichever name we use. Lampooning IS is, well, therapy perhaps but it makes no difference. It works as satire but as serious social or political critique, attacking IS is hardly subversive by anyone's standards, unless, of course, the viewer just happens to be a supporter. The critique in this pot is aimed at what is currently referred to as the 'regressive Left.' It may also be called, the 'hard Left,' 'the pseudo Left,' 'the Apologist Left,' or just 'Nothing Left.' Again, call it what you will, it amounts to the same thing: that part of the British political Left which is apologist in its attitude and response to Islamism, which routinely appeases dictators and fascist or fascistic leaders, as long as they threaten America and/or Israel. In short, it is the Left-overs that have thrown their lot in the far Right.

The targets then are 'Stop the War,' (see the Stop the War jugs in this post,) George Galloway, Anjem Choudary, Julian Assange, Asim Qureshi and Moazzem Beg (CAGE), Yvonne Ridley,  and assorted fawning, selfie-taking, followers, who dance around the base of pot, genuflecting and group-hugging their idols, (thank you, Nicholas Poussin and the Golden Calf.)

The appeased leaders are: Vladmimir Putin, Bashar Al Assad, Sayeed Ali Khamenei, Kings Abdullah and Salman, (House of Saud),  Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hasan Nasrullah, (Hezbollah), Khaled Meshal (Hamas), Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, and assorted jihadis including Mohammad Emwazi. They all ride the Islamist Roundabout in one direction or another. The Islamist flag is depicted in butt-plugs - my thanks to the clever, imaginative soul who made the original for the 2015 London Gay Pride. I also salute Mark Gertler's magnificent Merry-Go-Round in this pot.