Little Johny’s Spud Head.
I had forgotton all about little Johny’s Spud Head untill it came up the other day.
This is a little storey from the mid 90’s explaning exactly what Johny’s Spud Head represents. It happened to my then business partner, and has happenened, or probably will happen to anyone working to a commission brief involving the community.
‘encourage a sense of ownership in the local community,
the commission will involve close participation with users of the centre and the children,
that involves and engages students, staff and local communities, produces work of outstanding quality and provides an ongoing educational resource’.
All well worn phrases and hoops that artists have jumped through many many times. This included my former partner who had jumped with great agility and grace and had made a design which he was really pleased with and proudly presented it to the steering committe. Who were actually very impressed, and thought it would look very nice in their town square. Apart from the Head Teacher, the Centre Manager, or the Community Liason officer (I forget who it was now) who didn’t like it at all because little Johny who had worked extremely hard during that workshop has not had his efforts included and could we re-design it to be more inclusive of the community it represented please.
We drove home from somewhere in the midlands after that presentation and my partner was unable to speak for much of drive home. Little Johny had not really tried very hard and had drawn the first and only thing that had come into his head!
I have included some examples from his portfolio here.
