Martin Firrell - Motifs and Recurring Themes

Motifs and Recurring Themes

A number of themes and campaign positions recurs in Firrell’s works: a plea for the value of things that are different and the point of view that what is different should be investigated for potential rather than rejected as ‘other’ or perceived with suspicion or fear (Celebrate Difference, LED screen, Leicester Square 2001; Different Is Not Wrong, Curzon Cinemas 2006-7; I Want To Live In A City Where People Who Think Differently Command Respect, The National Gallery, London 2006). Firrell has also consistently campaigned for gender equality and from what is customarily regarded as a feminist position (I Want To LIve In A City Where Half The People In Charge Are Women, The National Gallery, London 2006; Why Are Women Still Descriminated Against? The Question Mark Inside, St Paul’s Cathedral, London 2008); Women Are Much More Honourable Than Men, quoting April Ashley, Complete Hero, Guards Chapel, London 2009). The subjects of maleness, violence and war tend to appear in association with one another; war is often commented upon but not necessarily from a purely pacifist perspective (All Men Are Dangerous, War Is A Male Preoccupation, Keep The Faith, Tate Britain 2006; I Don’t Understand Why There Is War, The Question Mark Inside, St Paul’s Cathedral, London 2008; War Is Always A Failure, Complete Hero, Guards Chapel, London 2009).

The majority of Firrell's works include some form of ancillary visual motif. Most common are vertical lines, either scrolling from left to right, or presented as static fields in ‘agitated motion’. Vertical lines are used to back, or underscore text, or to reveal and obscure text. Customarily the lines have been presented as white light. This vertical line motif appeared in every work between 2006 and 2010 with the exception of I Want To Live In A City Where... (The National Gallery, London 2006).

Firrell has also used what he has described (in the Sky Arts documentary, The Question Mark Inside) as ‘Easter Island heads’ - images of Buddha and Hanuman (Keep The Faith, Tate Britain, London 2006) and recently most notably of Canadian actor Nathan Fillion (Complete Hero, Guards Chapel, London 2009). The use of Fillion’s likeness was augmented by those of other contributors including Dr Adam Rutherford, April Ashley, Professor A C Grayling and Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry VC.

The ‘Easter Island Head’ motif is revisited and extended in Firrell's 2011 work the Sci Fi Series. Video portraits of performers who are influential in that subculture express the sociological and philosophical significance of the dramas they have played out in their respective television franchises. “I aimed for extreme simplicity and a tacit monumentality, like the heads of Easter Island. The aesthetic problem was always one of portraiture - how do you make portraiture of these incredible performers (and by extension of the characters they have created) that has a clear point of view, a visual strength and distinctiveness?"