Strung out!

This is something different. This painting was a protest and it was done several years ago when I was still employed in the Civil Service. The Government of the day wanted to reduce the number of employees and run the Civil Service like a private company. So they imposed an employee performance system that forced 10% of the staff annually into a category that the Government called 'Must Improve'. That was an enormous stressor to the workforce because it carried an implicit threat of job loss. Underlying the whole thing was an aspiration to reduce Civil Service numbers. In practice, however, it met with huge opposition from staff and the scheme, in consequence, underwent a number of revisions before being ultimately dropped. It was backed with all sorts of matrices and graphs to give it the false appearance of having some sort of scientific authenticity but, in reality, it was simply an attack on the job security of tens of thousands of civil servants. While staff were being told by their departments that the 10% quota was not compulsory, behind closed doors it was brutally enforced. It caused untold misery on a mass scale. People who had trusted the word of authority all their lives learned in large numbers that, in fact, the Government lied. And it brought out the very worst in those managers who would have trodden on anyone and anything to advance and promote themselves.

So in this symbolic piece of art we see puppets clad in office apparel, that is to say managers, dangling on the end of strings that are being pulled by their masters. And we see people simply dangling - victims of this set up. The large and monstrous character with the blood dripping off his hands is representative of the then minister in charge of the Civil Service. I tried to put it into a public exhibition when this issue was current but it was rejected.  Given the brutality of the image that is, perhaps, not surprising. But it's a pity because, had it been shown, there are lots of people who would have identified with it at the time. Does art have a role to play in protesting against injustice? Clearly it does. That is what this is. This is uncompromising art, art with something to say about the conditions that gave rise to it. You might not admire it. It doesn't ask that of you. It asks you to think. The painting is on a very large canvas. With the frame it measures 142 by 117 cms.