Trumped Final

TRUMPED
MAKE ART GREAT AGAIN!
10th - 16th April 2017

TRUMPED
MAKE ART GREAT AGAIN!
2016 saw a lot of unexpected occurrences
happen, the only word that would best
describe 2016 would be …’TRUMPED’.
This feeling of being ‘Trumped’ is something
common in all of us, unless you’re Donald of
course.
Trump, is the catalyst of such a major cultural
experience of emotion, its fascinating that
someone has produced such a huge
reaction around the world. This phenomenon
leads to question our roles in society within
the current state of affairs.

Unity is the code, (as it were) this is what we all
need at this present time. There is a sense of
uncertainty in the air across the UK, the US,
Europe and across the world. Considering that
only 11 countries are not at war.
The tectonic plates are shifting beneath us, but
shifting out of control? The generation that
follows us need to be steered in the right
direction and it is down to us to be that driving
force. At this stage, you may be thinking what
does art have anything to do with this?
When we think of art we all have different
opinions and representations of what art is and
where it belongs. From contemporary art to
political art, It’s all fundamentally the same, it
carries essence and history.
When following the contrast between the
historical events of the past in comparing them to
now, there is a general feeling and belief about
today’s society which somewhat shows similarity
to the atmospheres and anxiety within the
public realm, that of the past. Art has played a
major role in electing questions surrounding
political matters.
Art helps to build solidarity amongst people,
across art movements and
retains history that is often suppressed by the
mainstream. (Fake news?...)

Thank you to 44AD for supporting us and
this show.
Keep 44AD artspace open for
community use by signing this petition
www.44ad.net/save-44ad-artspace-petition.html
A big thank you to everyone at Bath Spa Univeristy
who helped to make this show happen.

Ashley Mackle
Ashley Mackles work delivers a combination of
romanticism and negation; his ideas take
precedence over traditional aesthetic and material
concerns as they progress through the abstract,
pop and conceptual schools of thought.
Mackle finds enjoyment in creating vivid work that
playfully dislocates, subverts and suggests that
the paradigm of disconnection that we live in has
awoken our acts of denial, separation, power and
control are the main authority of our social
structure.
The creations made underline that changing our
habits needs all of us to recognise and consider
the acts and decisions we make and how these
affect the issues we are all currently faced with:
our environment being slowly destroyed; the rising
gloom of worldwide violence; and the governed
predictability of human woe. All filtered by the
culture machine.
Mackle’s goal is to elicit questions from the viewer
on these issues, this generation and our
society...

Irfan Halabja
Irfan Halabja uses a combination of traditional
methods to create ceramic vases, ranging from hand
built coil pots, to press moulding and slip casting.
In contrast to these traditional skills in more recent
works Halabja uses more contemporary techniques
like laser cutting and 3D printing.
The vessels Halabja creates conform to
traditional shapes and decoration but are then
subverted through destructive means, either with
‘negative’ additions to the pots or by literally tearing
and destroying them.
Whether it is a traditional or contemporary process
Halabja is using to create his work it always has a
focus on division within the world, usually within the
Kurdish community of which he belongs.

Nelly Mason
Mason works mostly in mixed media and collage
combining various mediums with both satirical and
sincere implications. Some key elements within her
work are collecting, selecting, arranging and
composition.
As well as culture, people, daily life and politics from
the past and present she has a love for found
material and combining these different elements.
Mason has used old books, adverts and magazines
combined with ink, spray paint and oil pastel to
create this series of mixed media pieces
surrounding Trump.
This work is about both aesthetic and concept. It is
there to be enjoyed, laughed at and thought about.
Donald Trump has caused controversy and outrage
across the globe and we’re guessing this isn’t going
to stop for some time.
Who knows what will happen or the effects he will
have on our future. What was a joke is now a threat
but Mason’s work brings a humourous approach as
awell as a level of darkness to this individual.

Ryan Wynn
Ryan Wynn is fascinated by human interactions,
both with each other and our environment. His
work centres around self-destruction, he explores
this through various media including sculpture and
film, which are often intrinsically entwined.
Wynn feels a need to respond to the evolution and
actions of the British Armed Forces, which he grew
up amongst, as well as the actions and subsequent
media portrayal of home-grown “Terrorists” in the
UK.
The work aims to ask the viewer to question the
validity of death and hatred as tools for social
change. Furthermore, it asks them where we as a
society have gone wrong. Instead of focusing our
hatred on the actions of others, it asks us to see
where we could have made a change to stop these
events from happening.
Whether that’s the death of civilians in unmanned
aerial vehicle strikes or civilians who lose their
lives to more low-tech weapons such as knives,
cars or bombs.
This is often achieved through the use of absurdity,
be that dysfunctional drones which destroy themselves
in a maelstrom of movement or films which
incorporate industrious home-made weapons,
which fire little more than a wisp of air.

Sonny-Lee Lightfoot
This body of work is a homage to Futurist Artist, Renato
Bertelli’s ‘Head of Mussolini’.
The Futurist idea rejected old traditions and supported
modernity. This was in keeping with Italian President of
the time, Benito Mussolini, whose aim was to liberate
Italy from the weight of it’s past and ultimately ‘make
Italy great again’. Therefore Futurism became intertwined
with Italian Fascism which is depicted by Bertelli’s
‘Head of Mussolini’.
Rather than depicting a Fascist dictator of the early
20th Century ‘Head of State’ is a recreation of a current
leader. The sculptures are in keeping with the
Futurist movement, with its speed and means of production
alongside the materials. The work was designed
with computer programs Rhinoceros3D and
Autodesk’s 123D Make. It was manufactured using
a laser cutter and then assembled by hand to create
both plastic portraits.
Plastic has negative long lasting effects on our environment.
It’s cheap and disposable, this coupled with
the hollow, transparent features of both portraits would
all have negative connotations when applied to a person’s
character.

Summer Varley
Summers Varley’s artwork focuses on identity; she
explores the markers and methods we use in
everyday society to define ourselves. She finds
inspiration in different cultures throughout history,
researching what methods were used to define
identity around that time. Summer has a great
interest in people and how we all relate to the world.
This work was based on the recent phenomenon of
‘Fake News.’ Varley conducted research into
ancient prophecies, and also the many modern
online ‘prophecies’ and prediction websites.
Varley noticed the relevance between the two and
wanted to explore the interesting similarity. On these
sites, you can find different organisations, many,
religious, and their predictions for the future. She
picked out the quotes directly from these websites
and transferred them onto an ancient looking
ceramic tablet.
This work juxtaposes the concepts of the past and
present. The Ideas of what some would call ‘False
Prophecies’ with that of Fake news.

Buy a Block
Own a piece of the ‘great, great’ wall.
Each block contains a selection of artworks by
each artist represented in this exhibition.
Any enquires please contact
ashleydanielmackle@gmail.com

Artist contact details
Ashley Mackle
ashleydanielmackle@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/AshleyDanielMackle
www.instagram.com/ashleydanielmackle
Irfran Halabja
www.facebook.com/Irfan-Portfolio-
1565779363723978/?fref=ts
Nelly Mason
nmason96@hotmail.co.uk
Ryan Wynn
ryanwynn93@gmail.com
Sonny-Lee Lightfoot
sonnyleelightfoot@gmail.com
Summer Varley
varleycontemporary@gmail.com
summervarley.portfoliobox.net

“In the time of destruction we must create”