Gympie-based activist and Green Left supporter Wendy Carr stumbled upon one of British artist Guy Denning’s paintings on Instagram late one night and after delving deeper into his work, she was determined to see it shown in Australia.
Using a “blend of street art and brutal political commentary”, Denning’s work is “a powerful protest, visually demanding attention to the injustices and inhumanities of our world,” Carr told GL.
“One project of Guy’s stayed with me — the 112 life-sized paste-ups of French soldiers who went to fight in WWI and never returned. I wondered if we could recreate it here in a different context.
“So I tossed him a comment on Facebook.”
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What began as a casual exchange “evolved into an unexpected connection” and “turned to the possibility of an exhibition in Australia”.
Carr floated the idea of an exhibition to an artist collective in Gympie who run Art Post, “a beautiful gallery housed in the Old Post Office building from the 1800s”. They “immediately jumped on board, agreed to host the exhibition, and helped me sort the next stage”.
After Denning introduced Carr to Australian artists Cate and Pete Whitehead, they joined forces to tackle the logistics, including how to transport a “significant collection of artwork from France to Australia in a way that was both economical and environmentally friendly”.
Carr then took the step of contacting the Gympie RSL and Regional Gallery to propose a Remembrance Day exhibition of Denning’s work, which “would feature sketches and paste-ups of Gympie families who served in any war or engagement including men, women, and Indigenous Australians, alongside Guy’s 112 French soldiers and other works.
“Despite my inexperience, they fully supported the idea, helping to bring this vision to life.
“It’s an exhibition that juxtapositions honour for those who have served and a powerful protest against the atrocities of war.”
Denning told GL from his home in France that while his work deals with existential issues such as war and climate catastrophe, and artists “are not disinterested commentators or socially autonomous beings”, art can be a basis for social and political connection. “I'm well past the deluded belief that art has the power to significantly change the world. It may sometimes seem to be in step with a social or cultural zeitgeist … so retrospectively can be seen to highlight an issue before the mainstream media starts running with it.
“But in reality most artists are just thieving other thinkers/activists' more interesting or original ideas and presenting them more effectively in the best way they know how. That's very much speaking for myself of course (economically secure(ish), white and male).
“I used to be able to justify my work as 'political' by researching harder to find stories, making images of them (often sourced from indie press or video captures) and posting it as 'the news you're not being told'.
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“The most memorable example for me was accidentally discovering the very start of the Occupy movement in New York when visiting the city for an exhibition and then finding no mainstream media coverage of it.
“So I naturally just started drawing from the shared phone photos that I found in social media and shared them myself. There was also some relevance to this methodology in highlighting ecological issues.
“But I think now I have to settle my anger and accept that all I can realistically achieve is to share a common political, social stance with the likeminded.
“Yes, it's essentially 'preaching to the choir' — but sometimes the choir benefits from the knowledge that they're not alone. I know that's how I've viewed all my political life's connections, be it trade unionists, fellow vandals on city walls, banner wavers, lock-gluers, meeting attendees ... Sometimes it's just enough to know that you're not fucking mad on your own. And that social connection is the real starting point of making social change.”
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Denning is also critical of the devolution of social media platforms into “toothless” platforms, when it comes to “challenging the establishment political dogma of the day”.
“At their inception they promised, like the internet of the early 90s, access for all to a medium that could potentially speak to all. But once the establishment views an ember of threat to its hegemonic control it swiftly insists and enables any fire to be extinguished … [and] … any challenger to the priests and machinations of Mammon will find themselves shadow banned and algorithmed out of virtual earshot.”
Carr describes Denning’s work as “a brutal truth-telling of man’s inhumanity and environmental destruction”.
“What struck me most was how Denning, a lifelong activist, managed to meld traditional graffiti with street art, creating pieces that speak for those without a voice.”
On how his work will be received in Australia, Denning said: “I honestly don't know. Any judgment I make on Australia is only informed by cultural prejudices fed by my lifetime's consumption of the big, bad media … My work isn't for everyone, but I'd like to think that it would probably receive a more positive response in Australia than in my country of birth.
“It's a personal joy to be having my work exhibited on the other side of the planet. Just to be able to say that my work has been shown this far afield is an enormous thing for me.”
[Guy Denning’s exhibition opens on October 4 in Gympie. A feature event with speakers, including Denning (via video link) will be held on October 12. View more of Dennings work at: guydenning.org.]
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