- Venue
- 1,000,000 MPH
- Location
There is much to protest about these days, but how to go about it in an era when The Who's “Won't Get Fooled Again” rattles around the brain at the (non) election of a new Prime Minister, whilst doubling as the title music for the very shiny CSI: Miami?
Freee – Dave Beech, Andy Hewitt and Mel Jordan – hope to place a kind of honest protest at the centre of cultural activity with their show at 1000000mph in Bethnal Green. Outside the gallery is a shop sign overhead, in which the three artists hold up the name of the show made as a funereal wreath in letters of yellow flowers. It's seems like a memorial to protest and its potential while embracing a need to sweeten the pill of sloganeering. Freee make works that amuse rather than alienate. You might not agree with everything they say, but you'll probably smile at the work and acknowledge that they probably have a point, unlike the ranting nutter flogging political platitudes that you cross the road to avoid.
There's a smartness in the work that doesn't overstep itself. In the 2006 video piece, “How To Talk To Public Art”, they ask simple questions of statues and sculpture throughout Manchester. A film of these small interventions runs on a loop. Highlights include: “Is it me, or do monarchs have an unfair advantage when being seen or heard?”; “Insurgents, criminals and terrorists banded together to place obstacles on the street as barricades to prevent the forces of law and order from reaching their city centre strongholds” and “One day scientific progress, digital technology, social engineering and genetic manipulation will allow us all to be astronauts”. The last slogan is delivered as three speech bubbles as Dave, Andy and Mel vacantly chew gum (it makes them look like they might be talking, but can't be bothered really). To me it imparts a naïve hope coupled with a kind of agnosticism. In short, there are probably more important things to do.
This could all be ironic postmodern guff, but I don't think so. Freee talk about encouraging a rounded, questioning, free(e) thinking citizenry that are awkward and searching, rather than blindly towing any party line, which is an encouraging idea in an era beset with false gurus, celebrity endorsements and plug-in air fresheners.
A large photograph – hinting at the iconic Ramones LP – carries the slogan “Don't let the media have a monopoly on the freedom of speech” on three white t-shirts. It's a striking image, one that uses a retro touchstone, but comes from people who have heard the LP, rather than simply thinking the photo cool. It's this happiness to engage in real issues rather than posture over a pair of Converse All Stars that makes me warm to Freee.
Of course, at the heart of this work (and it is in the heart, at least as much as the head), is the one irony they can't escape: Don't follow leaders, and that includes us. Think for yourself.
Protest Is Beautiful is beautiful.
http://www.freee.org.uk
Artist, arts administrator and writer.
