- Venue
- LA Sante
- Location
- South East England
This is undoubtedly a functional image which indicates something about the purpose of the building it is positioned upon (located at latitude, longitude 50.825715,-0.14146 [for Google Maps and similar systems]). One picture is split into four tall rectangles, maybe 1.5m wide by 3m in height each. Men (I counted about twelve of them), in tight bright outfits and wearing closely fitting head gear made from some rubber-like substance, face masks of sorts, are frozen in motion. They have been caught in a furious charge from right to left across the picture, most are leaning forward, their arms revolving about shoulders; hands either clenched to some degree or splayed out. On the outfits there are numbers. The sky behind is of a clear blue, the ground beneath the men’s feet is blue. In the background sit what appear to be accommodation blocks. The characters are all Caucasian men of a similar physique. As stated above they are depicted in a frantic rush, though stress is not apparent or meant to be conveyed here. The figures are moving forward in a rough line which runs off into the distance so that on the photograph – this image is a photograph – many lines coincide at a vanishing point to the bottom left of the screen. The lines form a subliminal arrow thus, pointing in that direction.
In simply describing the contents of these rectangles the meaning reveals itself. (Study Barthes’ Mythologies or other texts on Semiotics to inform yourself as to how such readings are conducted.) The speeding figures are a metaphor for ESCAPE, and escape FROM a particular type of capture namely: CAPTURE BY CAMERA. Put bluntly, these men do not want ‘to be in the picture’. They are trying to get off it. Their situation is desperate. We can safely assume that they do not wish to be ‘seen’ because they are embarrassed about their uninteresting, generic body shapes, and looks, and also undoubtedly they are ashamed of the prison outfits which they have been forced to wear. The building which the picture decorates can only be a kind of jail.
Behind these walls inmates are humiliated, already having been brainwashed and drugged. In a typically modern combination of violence and economic efficiency seeking, the prisoners are ground down mentally to the extent that further torture is self-inflicted. During day-release the inmates ‘work’ long hours only to return here, and have the remaining period filled with equally pointless activity.
This activity, termed Exercise, takes its toll until eventually all look identical. The resulting physical uniformity means in the long term that no uniform is necessary. The figures described above are almost at that point, which is why they are so inadequately clad. The ultimate aim is full nudity, which would expose the cloning with the resulting psychological effects on the inmates. Inherent also to the giant poster’s message is that any attempt to escape this hell is futile. Our subjects come tantalisingly close to breaking free but remain there, fixed, like the characters on Keats’ Grecian Urn.
Alternatively this picture amounts to yet another instance of the most menacing and ubiquitous Non-Socialist Realism.
