Godbold runs foul of political masters,
already (Friday 15 April 2005)
compiled by Elaine Cronin
 |
| cover of the current CIRCA, issue
111, featuring an image by David Godbold |
The British general election as portrayed
by Dublin artist David Godbold was always going to cause some
form of consternation amongst party officials, and since taking
on the position as official election artist there has already
been some conflict in relation to the work submitted.
Art critics have been highly intrigued by
the election committee's seemingly liberal choice of Godbold,
(see here for related recirca news),
seeing as the artist has such a grounded reputation of having
a bold satirical style often coupled with undercutting political
commentaries. The reasons behind people's intrigue becomes especially
obvious when considering the huge gulf that exists between him
and the previous election artist, son of the Tory frontbencher
Tim Yeo, Jonathan Yeo, who himself produced some rather conventional
portraits of the three party leaders back in 2001. Indeed, Godbold
himself was rather surprised at the decision, saying "The
committee saw lots of my drawings and there are very few of
them that wouldn't offend somebody in a way...It sort of amazes
me that I really did get selected. It's either brave or foolhardy.
Whether or not the committee will allow the
best of Godbold's work to filter through as part of the final
commission is uncertain, given that so far two of his early
drawings have reportedly already been rejected, one by the publisher
of a book due to accompany his commission for involving nudity
and another for including the word 'bastard'.
"I have done one provisional drawing,
which is an anatomical study of a male politician forwards and
backwards - that's been disallowed because we can't have nudity...Another
one includes the word "bastard" and I can't do that.
There's going to be leftover drawings. There are plans to maybe
exhibit the refusé drawings. It's quite likely that for
[each] approved drawing, there's going to be another five that
are unapproved."
While the commission requires him to be nonpartisan,
Godbold has said that committee chairman Tony Banks has also
set further ground rules.
"He was saying 'I want them to be an
important historical record but also non-offensive'. I am not
quite sure that these two things are going to work out - somebody's
going to get offended."
If the committee comes to regret their momentarily
brave choice and continues to restrict anything that could contain
something that might offend some section of the demographic,
or perhaps more likely, some section of the government, they
may find they are faced with a rather difficult choice when
it comes to shortlisting final works for the eventual eighteen-picture
commission.
If allowed, Godbold's contribution to the
election process could be a radical collage-style commentary
on the various political gestures, party propaganda, poster
campaigns, competing television graphics and caustic newspaper
clippings that are bound to arise over the coming month. And
as he also plans to travel on both opposition battle buses there
could be some insightful flyaway comments included. He is at
the moment, however, having some difficulties gaining access
to Tony Blair's strictly-controlled entourage, which is surprising
given the PM's fondness of well staged sound bites and monumental
quotes - but perhaps that only includes the heavily rehearsed
and scripted ones.
All parties involved will obviously be watching
what they're saying for the next three weeks if they don't want
any unbecoming comments of theirs to become immortalised in
art, but wouldn't it be great if they let the guard down, even
if just the once? So, as the public continues to speculate which
politician was depicted in all his full-frontal glory, a word
of warning to all parties - be careful what you say, boys; and
as our dear Mr Blair has already said, "this is not a time
for sound bites...but I can feel the hand of history on our
shoulders.
Sources: The
Observer; TimesOnline(UK).
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Do you have an opinion on this article? If so, please click
| Responses so far |
| Comment 1 |
David Godbold is a fantastic choice for the commission. This
response to his first works is absurd. The politicians are
managing to reduce themselves to ridicule by not allowing
ridicule.
|
| Comment 2 |
when will the chosen works be unveiled? and more
interestingly, when will the rejected works go on show?!
|
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