The appearance of a weight hanging from a thread appears in a lot of my work, the first being in The Party of 1994/5, where the Hills Hoist also appears. The foreground barrier is also the theme of all the Fence paintings but, as I thought of this painting, I wanted an added feeling of repetition and blocking but with the triviality of plastic machos.

Although I had planned for the children, inconsequentially, down on the ground and the indifferent adults (who were also, irrelevantly, Mormons), the background went through several metamorphoses of trees, then shrubs, then nothing.

The soldiers all have crewcuts as they looked ridiculous in the little hats/smart haircuts of the models.

This is the last of the work done for the Norton Gallery, and he did me a very good little show, but then sold the gallery and went off to Italy.

** There are more notes on the Mormons on the 'Compare use of Mormons'  Page.