September 29th I had tea and biscuits with the chairman of Essex County Council. Three of the artists working on the project were asked to attend to talk about our art practices, our ideas and how we were planning to approach the commission.
I presented a body of work which was installed in the County Hall back in 2006 – whoops….. the chairman remembered it had caused slight controversy.
The work was a selection of texts and portraits, the culmination of a residency at Saffron Walden High School, but one of the texts “Milk was a bad choice” (a line spoken by the legendary ‘Anchorman’) was deemed offensive by councillors when French farmers were planning a visit.
Fortunately she didn’t remember another line which had incensed religious members of staff “The best part of believe is the lie”, this text was removed from the atrium.
