![Martin Firrell public art text 'Remember 1967' - Digital Billboards, London 2017](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Martin_Firrell_public_art_text_%27Remember_1967%27_-_Digital_Billboards%2C_London_2017.jpg)
Martin Firrell (born 4 April 1963 in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
)
[''Creative Review'', "One to Watch". London: Centaur Publishing, 2005, Vol. 25, Issue 1, p. 18.] is a British public artist.
Firrell uses language to engage directly with the public, provoking dialogue, usually about aspects of marginalisation, equality and equitable social organisation. The artist's reported aim is 'making the world more humane'.
He is one of a trio of artists (with
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer (born July 29, 1950) is an American neo-conceptual artist, based in Hoosick, New York. The main focus of her work is the delivery of words and ideas in public spaces and includes large-scale installations, advertising billboards, ...
and
Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger (born January 26, 1945) is an American conceptual artist and collagist associated with the Pictures Generation. She is most known for her collage style that consists of black-and-white photographs, overlaid with declarative captio ...
) known for socially engaged public art practice where text is foundational and central to that practice.
His work has been summarised as "art as debate".
Early life
![Martin Firrell public art text 'A Subterranean Sadness' - Public Information System, Liverpool Street Station, London 2005](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Martin_Firrell_public_art_text_%27A_Subterranean_Sadness%27_-_Public_Information_System%2C_Liverpool_Street_Station%2C_London_2005.jpg)
Firrell was educated in England but left school unofficially at 14
because he "had no more use for it". He educated himself during his absence from school by walking and reading in the Norfolk countryside. He read early 20th-century literature extensively, citing the works of
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Woolf was born i ...
,
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...
, and the French writer
Marguerite Duras
Marguerite Germaine Marie Donnadieu (, 4 April 1914 – 3 March 1996), known as Marguerite Duras (), was a French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and experimental filmmaker. Her script for the film ''Hiroshima mon amour'' (1959) ea ...
(with whom he shares his birthday and a high degree of political sympathy) as key influences on his later development.
It was a passage in
Anaïs Nin
Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell (February 11, 1903 – January 14, 1977; , ) was a French-born American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Born to Cuban parents in France, Nin was the d ...
's novel ''The Four Chambered Heart'' that set Firrell on the path of socially engaged public works. In the passage in question, the novel's protagonist declares that literature fails to prepare us for, or guide us through, the calamities or challenges of life, and is therefore worthless.
"As I have grown older I have become more adamant that my purpose is to campaign in some way for change, using my works as a medium for catalysing debate. If you can raise debate, eventually change will follow."
Firrell sets out to remedy Nin's "worthlessness" of words by using language to raise provocative questions about society, relevant to the vast majority of people and freely available in public.
Firrell trained originally as an advertising copywriter.
British social historian
Joe Moran suggests Firrell is consequently well equipped to hijack public space with stealthily subversive declarations like 'Protest is liberty's ally'.
Practice
In most of Firrell's works it becomes apparent that uppermost is the belief in the redemptive power of ideas, directed at extending or protecting the right of the individual to create his or her own unique way of life and to live it accordingly without interference.
Consistent with this aim is an emphasis on participation. ''Complete Hero'', created whilst the artist was in residence with the British Army, invited the contribution of ideas, experiences and opinions, which formed the greater proportion of the project as it evolved on the internet.
Firrell has held that the purpose of existence is to develop the richness and meaning of lived experience, that art and culture in general should be key contributors to this central project and that their success or otherwise can be measured against this criterion.
In the Sky Arts documentary ''The Question Mark Inside'', Firrell discussed his view that contemporary art has lost its way, serving a self-elected elite, rather than the wider interests of humanity. He further claimed that art's proper place is at the centre of everyday life as a powerful force for good, that it should be a joyous expression of our shared humanity, and that his personal motto is "why settle for the art world when you can have the whole world?"
![Martin Firrell public art text for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation performance of Tosca - The Royal Opera House London 2007](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Martin_Firrell_public_art_text_for_the_Paul_Hamlyn_Foundation_performance_of_Tosca_-_The_Royal_Opera_House_London_2007.jpg)
As Royal Opera House Creative Director
Deborah Bull
Deborah Bull, Baroness Bull, CBE (born 22 March 1963) is an English dancer, writer, and broadcaster and former creative director of the Royal Opera House. She joined King's College London as Director, Cultural Partnerships in 2012. In 2015 she w ...
said of Firrell: "Yes he's a provocateur if you like, but the underlying message is very rarely 'life's rubbish and you're all a bunch of sharks'.... He's seeking to move beyond simple messages to something which provokes in the viewer a new sense of themselves and their place in the world".
![Martin Firrell public art text for Tate Britain London 2006](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Martin_Firrell_public_art_text_for_Tate_Britain_London_2006.jpg)
On the same topic, Firrell has said: "I felt there was a problem with writing because of narrative – because it unfolds in time necessarily, and I was jealous of the painters where everything in painting is available in a single field. Simply, I wanted to make words work like a picture and that led me to writing aphorisms. When I wrote ''All Men Are Dangerous'', I wrote something of immense truthfulness and importance with all of its meaning entirely available in a single field."
Firrell has used digital billboards, cinema screens, newsprint, the internet, portraiture and video interviews of culturally significant figures like
Howard Jacobson
Howard Eric Jacobson (born 25 August 1942) is a British novelist and journalist. He is known for writing comic novels that often revolve around the dilemmas of British Jewish characters.Ragi, K. R., "Howard Jacobson's ''The Finkler Question'' a ...
,
April Ashley
April Ashley (29 April 1935 – 27 December 2021) was an English model. She was outed as a transgender woman by ''The Sunday People'' newspaper in 1961 and is one of the earliest British people known to have had sex reassignment surgery. Her ...
,
Johnson Beharry
Colour Sergeant Johnson Gideon Beharry, (born 26 July 1979) is a British Army soldier who, on 18 March 2005, was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration for valour in the British and Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth arm ...
VC, and
A C Grayling
Anthony Clifford Grayling (; born 3 April 1949) is a British philosopher and author. He was born in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and spent most of his childhood there and in Nyasaland (now Malawi). In 2011 he founded and became the first Ma ...
, and large-scale digital projection onto the
Guards Chapel
The Royal Military Chapel, commonly known as the Guards' Chapel, is a British Army place of worship that serves as the religious home of the Household Division at the Wellington Barracks in Westminster, Greater London. Completed in 1838 in the st ...
, spiritual home of the Household Division of the British Army,
the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...
in London, the
Houses of Parliament
The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north bank ...
, the
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...
, Covent Garden,
Tate Britain
Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...
, and
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...
.
Firrell has worked with complex and influential organisations, including the Church of England (Public Artist in Residence, St Paul's Cathedral, 2008 and again in 2016) and the British Army (Artist in Residence, Household Division, 2009). These organisations have engaged with audacious, self-questioning project content, including "I don't think this is what God intended" (West Front, St Paul's Cathedral, 2008) and "War is always a failure" (North elevation, Guards Chapel, 2009).
Firrell allowed cameras to record his creative process for the first time in 2008. The Question Mark Inside,
a television documentary produced by
Simon Channing Williams
Simon Channing Williams (10 June 1945 – 11 April 2009) was a British film producer. After having worked as a production assistant and producer of TV films and TV series in the 1970s and early 1980s, he and Mike Leigh formed the film product ...
and
Colin Burrows was first broadcast by Sky Arts 1 on 29 October 2009, and provided new insights into Firrell's opinions, aims, daily life and practice.
Ten years later, Firrell was the subject of a second documentary ''Overthrow the Social Order'', directed by
Oliver Guy-Watkins first broadcast by Sky Arts in New Zealand on 21 May 2018.
Firrell's body of work includes investigations into portraiture (Text Portrait of Howard Jacobson, Booker Prize winner, 2010) and explorations of the power of mass popular culture to propagate socially useful ideas, in particular, the science fiction genre.
In 2006, ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' described Firrell as "One of the capital's most influential public artists".
Writing in ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'',
Howard Jacobson
Howard Eric Jacobson (born 25 August 1942) is a British novelist and journalist. He is known for writing comic novels that often revolve around the dilemmas of British Jewish characters.Ragi, K. R., "Howard Jacobson's ''The Finkler Question'' a ...
stated, "I like words on public buildings and Firrell is a master at gauging their power."
Caitlin Moran
Catherine Elizabeth Moran (; born 5 April 1975) is an English journalist, author, and broadcaster at ''The Times'', where she writes three columns a week: one for the Saturday Magazine, a TV review column, and the satirical Friday column "Celeb ...
for ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' described Firrell's work as being built on "huge, open-chord statements that make your ears ring".
Firrell was born in Paris, unexpectedly, on the
Champs-Élysées
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc de Triomphe is lo ...
outside what is now
Sephora
Sephora is a French multinational retailer of personal care and beauty products. Featuring nearly 340 brands, along with its own private label, Sephora Collection, Sephora offers beauty products including cosmetics, skincare, body, fragrance, n ...
. He was London Cultural Ambassador for the now defunct ''
International Herald Tribune
The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France for international English-speaking readers. It had the aim of becoming "the world's first global newspaper" and could fairly be said ...
'' curating the newspaper's first London Arts Season in 2005, titled "Breathless…" after
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Franà ...
's
nouvelle vague
French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...
film of the same title.
Social artwork
![All Identity Is Constructed](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/All_Identity_Is_Constructed._Public_art_by_Martin_Firrell._Digital_Billboards_August_2016.jpg)
All Identity is Constructed appeared on UK digital billboards in 2016 examining the principle that all identities, regardless of their differences, are arbitrary constructions. Some may be less usual than others but all are similarly made-up.
According to ''Creative Review'', "The work, which gives voice to three different identities in a series of 90-second video works, presents the act of choosing one's identity as a human right. The project, says Firrell, is 'motivated by a desire to make life easier for people who don't fit into the usual identity "moulds"'."
![Projections of fire and text onto the National Theatre London by Public Artist Martin Firrell](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Projections_of_fire_and_text_onto_the_National_Theatre_London_by_Public_Artist_Martin_Firrell.jpg)
Fires Modern was commissioned by
Artichoke
The globe artichoke (''Cynara cardunculus'' var. ''scolymus'' ),Rottenberg, A., and D. Zohary, 1996: "The wild ancestry of the cultivated artichoke." Genet. Res. Crop Evol. 43, 53–58. also known by the names French artichoke and green articho ...
as part of London's Burning, a festival of arts and ideas to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the
Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...
. The work explored metaphorical and often lesser known "fires" from the history of progressiveness. It presented 18 moments in the history of the progressive movement including reference to black history, the history of the women's rights movement, fascism in Britain, racism, murder and contemporary references to social inclusion movements like LGBT+ and modern race equality.
Remember 1967 marked the 50th anniversary of the UK 1967 Sexual Offences Act on 27 July 2017. UK digital billboards were 'taken over' for the day, re-presenting demands made originally by 1960s activists that still warrant attention in the artist's view. Firrell worked with human rights campaigner
Peter Tatchell
Peter Gary Tatchell (born 25 January 1952) is a British human rights campaigner, originally from Australia, best known for his work with LGBT social movements.
Tatchell was selected as the Labour Party's parliamentary candidate for Bermondsey ...
on the Remember 1967 project. Texts include "embrace lesbianism and overthrow the social order", "homosexuals and women are systematically oppressed by male supremacist society" and "overturn the ideology of hetero male supremacy".
Firrell also orchestrated a 'Gender Think-In' based on the think-ins held by the Gay Liberation Front in the early 1970s, which looked to build progressive policies and protest actions. In June 2017 business, culture and policy leaders met to explore the value of gender labels and how they inform the spheres they work in. The results are published by Firrell in a policy paper that looks to map out "an alternative future for gender".
Popular culture
![Martin Firrell public art text for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - The Vaults Waterloo Station London 2014](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Martin_Firrell_public_art_text_for_Dawn_of_the_Planet_of_the_Apes_-_The_Vaults_Waterloo_Station_London_2014_.jpg)
Metascifi (iOS app published 4 April 2015, now retired) mined popular American television science fiction for philosophical ideas with direct bearing on the project of enriching lived experience.
Contributors included
Kate Mulgrew
Katherine Kiernan Maria Mulgrew (born April 29, 1955) is an American actress and author. She is best known for her roles as Captain Kathryn Janeway on '' Star Trek: Voyager'' and Red on '' Orange Is the New Black''. She first came to attention ...
(aka
Captain Kathryn Janeway, ''
Star Trek: Voyager''),
Joe Flanigan
Joe Flanigan (born January 5, 1967) is an American writer and actor best known for his portrayal of the character Major/Lt. Colonel John Sheppard in ''Stargate Atlantis''.
Early life
Flanigan was born Joseph Dunnigan III in Los Angeles. He has ...
(aka
Colonel John Sheppard from ''
Stargate Atlantis
''Stargate Atlantis'' (usually stylized in all caps and often abbreviated ''SGA'') is an adventure and military science fiction television series and part of MGM's ''Stargate'' franchise. The show was created by Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper ...
''),
Torri Higginson
Sarah Victoria "Torri" Higginson (born December 6, 1969) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her roles in the ''TekWar'' movies and series, and for portraying Dr. Elizabeth Weir in ''Stargate SG-1'' and ''Stargate Atlantis'' (2004–20 ...
(aka Dr
Elizabeth Weir
Elizabeth Jane Weir (born February 20, 1948) is a Canadian lawyer and politician in New Brunswick. She was elected leader of the New Democratic Party of New Brunswick in June 1988 and became an opposition voice to the Liberal government, which ...
, ''Stargate Atlantis''),
Ben Browder
Robert Benedict Browder (born December 11, 1962) is an American actor, writer and film director, known for his roles as List of Farscape characters#John Crichton, John Crichton in ''Farscape'' and Cameron Mitchell (Stargate), Cameron Mitchell i ...
(aka Commander
John Crichton John Crichton may refer to:
* John Crichton (designer) (1917–1993), New Zealand furniture and interior designer
* John Crichton (Farscape), a character on the TV series ''Farscape''
* John Crichton, 3rd Earl Erne (1802–1885), Anglo-Irish peer ...
, ''
Farscape
''Farscape'' is an Australian-American science fiction television series, produced originally for the Nine Network. It premiered in the US on Sci-Fi Channel's SciFi Friday, 19 March 1999, at 8:00 pm EST as their anchor series. The series was c ...
'').
''It Ends Here'' (2014) was commissioned by Twentieth Century Fox Film Company to coincide with the release of the eighth film in the Planet of the Apes franchise, ''Dawn of the Planet of the Apes''.
Firrell indicated his intention was to explore the deeper meaning of Planet of the Apes’ particular corner of pop culture, locating truths that cast light on our attempts to live humanely in an over-crowded and tension-filled world"
The project extended Firrell's interest in ‘mining popular culture for quite serious content’
Firrell created five different underground environments in the Vaults under London's Waterloo Station, each dominated by a word or phrase: words stand tall as a man in pitch-blackness; the underground spaces rumble with found sound’. Visitors are given torches to explore and discover texts.
The artist deployed live performers in theatrical environments for the first time. The overall ambience looks to put visitors’ minds ‘in a state of alert’, said Dr Melanie Vandenbrouck, curatorial advisor on the project.
Metaworks
![Screen capture of metaFenella, a digital work of public art by Martin Firrell 2014](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Screen_capture_of_metaFenella%2C_a_digital_work_of_public_art_by_Martin_Firrell_2014.jpg)
Metafenella is an interactive video portrait of actress
Fenella Fielding
Fenella Fielding, OBE (born Fenella Marion Feldman; 17 November 1927 – 11 September 2018) was an English stage, film and television actress who rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, and was often referred to as "England's first lad ...
, England's First Lady of the ''double entendre''. Video portraiture draws out life lessons from Fielding's roles as the vampiric Valeria Watt in ''
Carry On Screaming
''Carry On Screaming!'' is a 1966 British black comedy horror film, the twelfth in the series of 31 ''Carry On'' films (1958–1992). It was the last of the series to be made by Anglo-Amalgamated before the series moved to The Rank Organisati ...
'', as Herself and Lady Hamilton in ''
The Morecambe & Wise Show'', and as The Voice in the cult TV series ''
The Prisoner
''The Prisoner'' is a 1967 British television series about an unnamed British intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a mysterious coastal village, where his captors designate him as Number Six and try to find out why he abruptl ...
''.
"I try to affect the texture of the moment because the only thing we can be sure of is this actual moment in our lives."
Early works
Two early works point to the agenda Firrell has explored extensively in mature works. Lucid Between Bouts of Sanity, published in a tri-lingual edition in 1996, is a manifesto in four sections exploring the reductive nature of action, the flaws in language, the difficulty of meaning anything accurately to anyone, and the possibility of using a constrained and reduced language to find a new expressive power. "I felt it must be possible to describe the limits within which all language must operate and so designate a clearly defined space for my own experimentation."
![Page of Martin Firrell Manifesto 'Lucid Between Bouts of Sanity'](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Page_of_Martin_Firrell_Manifesto_%27Lucid_Between_Bouts_of_Sanity%27.jpg)
The manifesto was published in French, English and Russian and distributed at the ICA Cafe in London and the ''
Literaturnoye Kafe (Saint Petersburg)
Literaturnoye Kafe (), or Literary Cafe, is a historically significant restaurant on Nevsky Prospect in Saint Petersburg, Russia, that was frequented by famous writers of Russian literature, including Alexander Pushkin and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, ...
''.
Postcards 1998 is an early, and now extremely rare, print project of 14 postcards in a green card slipcase. The project consists of 13 texts presented where postcards customarily display a picture, and a 14th card showing a photographic portrait of the artist (taken by Russian Concert Pianist, Yekaterina Lebedeva, using a disposable camera) on the Pont des Arts in Paris, mid cartwheel. It has been noted as the first of Firrell's works conceived with the sole aim of having a direct presence and influence in people's daily lives.
This project is regarded as a working prototype with influence over all subsequent works including large-scale projections of text in public space and works investigating the deep value of mass popular culture.
Residencies
Firrell has worked with large institutions that are not customarily associated with bold or controversial public statements. Firrell was Public Artist in Residence with the Household Division of the British Army in 2009, developing ''Complete Hero'' for projection onto the Guards Chapel in November 2009.
''Complete Hero'' examined contemporary ideas of heroism based on interviews with members of the Household Division and wider Army who have experience of active service including Lance Corporal
Johnson Beharry
Colour Sergeant Johnson Gideon Beharry, (born 26 July 1979) is a British Army soldier who, on 18 March 2005, was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration for valour in the British and Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth arm ...
VC; with writers, thinkers and performers including actor
Nathan Fillion
Nathan Fillion (; born March 27, 1971) is a Canadian-American actor. He played the leading roles of Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds on '' Firefly'' and its film continuation '' Serenity'', and Richard Castle on '' Castle''. , he was starring as J ...
speaking of the contemporary male hero in cult popular culture, novelist
Howard Jacobson
Howard Eric Jacobson (born 25 August 1942) is a British novelist and journalist. He is known for writing comic novels that often revolve around the dilemmas of British Jewish characters.Ragi, K. R., "Howard Jacobson's ''The Finkler Question'' a ...
and writer
Adam Nicolson
Adam Nicolson, (born 12 September 1957) is an English author who has written about history, landscape, great literature and the sea. He is also the 5th Baron Carnock, but does not use the title.
He is noted for his books ''Sea Room'' (about t ...
speaking of the hero in literature, with the iconic writer and speaker
April Ashley
April Ashley (29 April 1935 – 27 December 2021) was an English model. She was outed as a transgender woman by ''The Sunday People'' newspaper in 1961 and is one of the earliest British people known to have had sex reassignment surgery. Her ...
, comedian
Shazia Mirza
Shazia Mirza ( ur, ) is an English comedian, actress, and writer. She is best known for her stand-up comedy, and her articles in British newspapers ''The Guardian'' and ''The Daily Telegraph''.
Early life and education
Mirza was born in Birmi ...
, and philosopher
A. C. Grayling.
Members of the public contributed their own views of the meaning and significance of heroism in their lives at the Complete Hero blog.
In 2008, Firrell was Public Artist in Residence at
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...
. The residency culminated in ''
The Question Mark Inside'', digital text projections based on blog contributions from members of the public, interviews conducted by the artist with some of the UK's most respected thinkers, and the artist's own observations.
Commissioned by Dean and Chapter of St Paul's to mark the 300th anniversary of the topping-out of Christopher Wren's cathedral building, the project aimed to answer the questions: "what are the things that make like meaningful and purposeful, and what does St Paul's Cathedral mean in that contemporary context?"
A stream of possible answers, from the domestic to the sublime, appeared as text projections onto the south elevation of the cathedral dome, the West Front at Ludgate Hill and inside onto the Whispering Gallery. Comments about these projections can be posted on the project blog.
Whilst the means and aesthetics may be very different, Firrell's works can be regarded as the logical descendants of paintings like Delacroix's ''
Liberty Leading the People
''Liberty Leading the People'' (french: La Liberté guidant le peuple ) is a painting by Eugène Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled King Charles X. A woman of the people with a Phrygian cap personifying the conc ...
''.
Motifs and recurring themes
Several themes and campaign positions recur in Firrell's works: a plea for the value of things that are different and the point of view that what is different should be investigated for potential rather than rejected as "other" or perceived with suspicion or fear (''Celebrate Difference'', LED screen, Leicester Square 2001; ''Different Is Not Wrong'', Curzon Cinemas, 2006–7; ''I Want To Live In A City Where People Who Think Differently Command Respect'', The National Gallery, London, 2006). The artist has also consistently campaigned for gender equality and from what is customarily regarded as a feminist position (''I Want To Live In A City Where Half The People In Charge Are Women'', The National Gallery, London, 2006; ''Why Are Women Still Discriminated Against?'' ''The Question Mark Inside'', St Paul's Cathedral, London 2008); ''Women Are Much More Honourable Than Men'', quoting April Ashley, ''Complete Hero'', Guards Chapel, London, 2009). The subjects of maleness, violence and war tend to appear in association with one another; war is often commented upon but not necessarily from a purely pacifist perspective (''All Men Are Dangerous'', ''War Is A Male Preoccupation'', ''Keep The Faith'', Tate Britain 2006; ''I Don’t Understand Why There Is War'', ''The Question Mark Inside'', St Paul's Cathedral, London, 2008; ''War Is Always A Failure'', ''Complete Hero'', Guards Chapel, London 2009).
The majority of Firrell's works include some form of ancillary visual motif. Most common are vertical lines, either scrolling from left to right, or presented as static fields in "agitated motion". Vertical lines are used to back, or underscore text, or to reveal and obscure text. Customarily the lines have been presented as white light. This vertical line motif appeared in every work between 2006 and 2010 with the exception of ''I Want To Live in a City Where...'' (The National Gallery, London, 2006).
In a 2014 interview for the bureau of sensory intelligence, Firrell responded to the question: "What qualities do you most admire in an object" with the statement, "Its power to provoke; economy of means; symmetry; the colour blue; text; an insistence (implied or inferred) on justice." This "object", so described, bears a striking resemblance to Firrell's own works of public art, and can be seen to constitute a summary manifesto for the making and showing of work in public space – blue light featured strongly in Firrell's 300th anniversary commission for St Paul's Cathedral, and simplicity, symmetry, and clearly defined political positions are hallmarks of the majority of his works.
The American art critic
Daniel Gauss, writing in
Arte Fuse, identified Firrell's use of text as constituting "direct engagement that rejects the need for any analysis. Firrell is convinced that by using language he can meaningfully engage others in constructive dialogues to make the world more humane."
When questioned in the documentary 'Overthrow the Social Order' about the presence, or absence, of beauty in his artworks, Firrell answered, "I suppose everything hinges on your definition of beauty - what could be more beautiful than to try to say something about the world being more just or fairer? I can’t think of anything more exquisitely wondrous - the immense and vast beauty of justice - it’s better than all the coloured paint in the world, isn’t it? For me anyway."
Notable projects
* UK Digital Billboards ''Union City'' art inspired by
Clare Short
Clare Short (born 15 February 1946) is a British politician who served as Minister of State for Development, Secretary of State for International Development under Prime Minister Tony Blair from 1997 to 2003.
Short was the Member of Parliament ...
,
Frances O'Grady
Frances Lorraine Maria O'Grady, Baroness O'Grady of Upper Holloway (born 9 November 1959) became the General Secretary of the British Trades Union Congress (TUC) in 2013, the first woman to hold the position. After O'Grady presented her resignat ...
, and
Satish Kumar
Satish Kumar (born 9 August 1936) is an Indian British activist and speaker. He has been a Jainism, Jain monk, nuclear disarmament advocate and pacifist.'' ''Now living in England, Kumar is founder and Director of Programmes of the Schumacher ...
, 2019.
* UK Digital Billboards ''Power and Gender'' digital billboards investigating the way women regard, hold and use power, created in conversation with
Clare Short
Clare Short (born 15 February 1946) is a British politician who served as Minister of State for Development, Secretary of State for International Development under Prime Minister Tony Blair from 1997 to 2003.
Short was the Member of Parliament ...
,
Inga Beale
Dame Inga Kristine Beale, DBE (born 15 May 1963) is a British businesswoman and the former CEO of Lloyd's of London. In June 2018, it was announced that she would be stepping down as CEO of Lloyd's after leading the global insurance and reinsuranc ...
,
Alex Mahon
Alexandra Rose Mahon (born October 1973) is a British businesswoman. She has been the chief executive of Channel 4 since October 2017, succeeding David Abraham as the first female CEO of the channel.
Early life
Alexandra Rose Mahon was born i ...
,
Annie Rickard and
Liv Garfield, 2019.
* UK Digital Billboards ''Remember 1967'' digital billboards to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act in England and Wales, 2017
* UK Digital Billboards ''All Identity Is Constructed'' text and digital video exploring the arbitrary nature of identity, 2016
*
National Theatre ''Fires Modern'' digital projections of text and flame to the fly tower of the National Theatre, London, commissioned by Artichoke to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London, 2016
*
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...
''Fires Ancient'' digital projections of fire to the dome of St Paul's Cathedral, London, commissioned by Artichoke to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London, 2016
* ''Metascifi'' iOS app / video portraiture / digital documentary, philosophical truths derived from popular American television science fiction, feat.
Ben Browder
Robert Benedict Browder (born December 11, 1962) is an American actor, writer and film director, known for his roles as List of Farscape characters#John Crichton, John Crichton in ''Farscape'' and Cameron Mitchell (Stargate), Cameron Mitchell i ...
,
Nathan Fillion
Nathan Fillion (; born March 27, 1971) is a Canadian-American actor. He played the leading roles of Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds on '' Firefly'' and its film continuation '' Serenity'', and Richard Castle on '' Castle''. , he was starring as J ...
,
Joe Flanigan
Joe Flanigan (born January 5, 1967) is an American writer and actor best known for his portrayal of the character Major/Lt. Colonel John Sheppard in ''Stargate Atlantis''.
Early life
Flanigan was born Joseph Dunnigan III in Los Angeles. He has ...
,
David Hewlett
David Ian Hewlett (born 18 April 1968) is a British-born Canadian actor, writer, and director known for his role as Dr. Rodney McKay in the '' Stargate'' science-fiction franchise. He first gained fame for his roles as Grant Jansky in the Cana ...
,
Torri Higginson
Sarah Victoria "Torri" Higginson (born December 6, 1969) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her roles in the ''TekWar'' movies and series, and for portraying Dr. Elizabeth Weir in ''Stargate SG-1'' and ''Stargate Atlantis'' (2004–20 ...
,
Christopher Judge
Douglas Christopher Judge (born October 13, 1964) is an American actor best known for playing Teal'c in the Canadian-American military science fiction television series ''Stargate SG-1,'' and Kratos in the 2018 video game ''God of War'' and its ...
,
Eddie McClintock
Edward Theodore McClintock (born May 27, 1967) is an American actor, best known for his role of Secret Service agent Pete Lattimer on the Syfy series '' Warehouse 13''.
Early life
McClintock was born in Canton, Ohio, and raised by his father The ...
,
Kate Mulgrew
Katherine Kiernan Maria Mulgrew (born April 29, 1955) is an American actress and author. She is best known for her roles as Captain Kathryn Janeway on '' Star Trek: Voyager'' and Red on '' Orange Is the New Black''. She first came to attention ...
,
David Nykl
David Nykl (born 7 February 1967) is a Czech-Canadian actor of film, television, commercials and theater. He is best known for portraying Dr. Radek Zelenka in the SyFy television series ''Stargate Atlantis'' and Anatoly Knyazev in the DC Comi ...
et al., 2015
* ''It Ends Here'' installed text, haze, coloured light, found sound, performers / human nature or the road to redemption or hell, The Vaults, Waterloo Station, London 2014
* ''Metafenella'' interactive video portraiture / advice for living well from the life and work of British actress
Fenella Fielding
Fenella Fielding, OBE (born Fenella Marion Feldman; 17 November 1927 – 11 September 2018) was an English stage, film and television actress who rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, and was often referred to as "England's first lad ...
2014
* ''Complete Hero'' largescale digital projections to the North and West elevations of the Guards Chapel, Birdcage Walk, London with
Nathan Fillion
Nathan Fillion (; born March 27, 1971) is a Canadian-American actor. He played the leading roles of Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds on '' Firefly'' and its film continuation '' Serenity'', and Richard Castle on '' Castle''. , he was starring as J ...
,
April Ashley
April Ashley (29 April 1935 – 27 December 2021) was an English model. She was outed as a transgender woman by ''The Sunday People'' newspaper in 1961 and is one of the earliest British people known to have had sex reassignment surgery. Her ...
,
Howard Jacobson
Howard Eric Jacobson (born 25 August 1942) is a British novelist and journalist. He is known for writing comic novels that often revolve around the dilemmas of British Jewish characters.Ragi, K. R., "Howard Jacobson's ''The Finkler Question'' a ...
,
Adam Nicolson
Adam Nicolson, (born 12 September 1957) is an English author who has written about history, landscape, great literature and the sea. He is also the 5th Baron Carnock, but does not use the title.
He is noted for his books ''Sea Room'' (about t ...
,
Johnson Beharry
Colour Sergeant Johnson Gideon Beharry, (born 26 July 1979) is a British Army soldier who, on 18 March 2005, was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration for valour in the British and Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth arm ...
VC,
A. C. Grayling,
Wezley Sebastian,
Gia Milinovich
Gia Michele Milinovich (born 11 July 1969) is an American-British television presenter and writer.
Early life
Milinovich was born in Minnesota to an ethnic Serbian family,.
Career
She presented television programmes such as Channel 4's ''Dem ...
,
Mo Blackwood,
Shazia Mirza
Shazia Mirza ( ur, ) is an English comedian, actress, and writer. She is best known for her stand-up comedy, and her articles in British newspapers ''The Guardian'' and ''The Daily Telegraph''.
Early life and education
Mirza was born in Birmi ...
, Dr
Adam Rutherford
Adam David Rutherford (born 1975) is a British geneticist and science populariser. He was an audio-visual content editor for the journal ''Nature'' for a decade, and is a frequent contributor to the newspaper ''The Guardian''. He hosts the BBC R ...
, Dr
Jennifer Rohn
Jennifer Leigh Rohn (born 1967 in Stow, Ohio) is a British-American scientist and novelist. She is a cell biologist at University College London, editor of the webzine ''LabLit.com'' and founder of the ''Science is Vital'' organization that campa ...
, and others, 2009
*
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...
''
The Question Mark Inside'' commissioned by Dean and Chapter to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the topping-out of Christopher Wren's cathedral building. Digital text projections to the cathedral dome, West Front and Whispering Gallery, London 2008
*
Curzon Cinemas
Curzon Cinemas () are a chain of cinemas based in the United Kingdom, mostly in London, specialising in art house films. They also have a video on demand service, Curzon Home Cinema.
History
Curzon Cinemas were established in 1934 when Harold Wi ...
''1968'' (digital projections to mark the 40th anniversary of May 1968 for the festival All Power to the Imagination: 1968 and its Legacies) 2008
*
Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Paul Hamlyn Foundation is a registered charity, and a company limited by guarantee which has been established in its current form since 2004, succeeding an earlier incarnation that was founded in 1987, which itself formalised established philanthr ...
/
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...
''Power is always temporary'' (digital projection to the Royal Opera House main stage) 2007
*
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...
''It's Passion that Binds Us…'' (digital projection onto the Covent Garden elevation of the Royal Opera House) 2007
*
Curzon Cinemas
Curzon Cinemas () are a chain of cinemas based in the United Kingdom, mostly in London, specialising in art house films. They also have a video on demand service, Curzon Home Cinema.
History
Curzon Cinemas were established in 1934 when Harold Wi ...
''Different is not Wrong'' (35 mm projection, cinema screens) 2006-7
*
Campaign against Climate Change
The Campaign against Climate Change (variously abbreviated to CCC or CaCC) is a UK-based pressure group that aims to raise public awareness of anthropogenic climate change through mobilising mass demonstrations. Founded in 2001 in response to ...
''How ironic to live in fear of terrorism and die because of climate change'' (xenon projection to
St Pancras Station
St Pancras railway station (), also known as London St Pancras or St Pancras International and officially since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is ...
,
Battersea Power Station
Battersea Power Station is a decommissioned Grade II* listed coal-fired power station, located on the south bank of the River Thames, in Nine Elms, Battersea, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It was built by the London Power Company (LPC) ...
and
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
) 2006
*
National Gallery, London
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...
''I want to live in a city where…'' (digital projection onto the Trafalgar Square elevation of the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...
in London,
*
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''When the world's run by fools it's the duty of intelligence to disobey'' (projection onto
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
) 2006
*
Tate Britain
Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...
''All men are dangerous'' (words of wisdom projected onto the Duveen Gallery walls, commissioned by
Amy Lamé
Amy Lamé (née Caddle; born 3 January 1971) is an American-British performer, writer, and TV and radio presenter, known for her one-woman shows, her performance group Duckie, and LGBT-themed media works.
She was appointed by the Mayor of Lond ...
for
Duckie) 2006
References
External links
Official page*
metaFenella, interactive video portrait 2014
{{DEFAULTSORT:Firrell, Martin
1963 births
Living people
British activists
British artists