16 Plastic Soldiers
91 x 106 cms 2002
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.
** There are more notes on the Mormons on the 'Compare use of Mormons' Page.