Berlin Manifesto

Written After completing a 3 month artists’ residency in Berlin March to June 2014

Some things I have learnt

1. I will again never apologize for using the male nude as the major subject of my work. In the history of art it has been one of the most important subjects across the Greek Roman and Renaissance times and through religious art in such subjects as the Crucifixion, The Baptism of Christ and the Resurrection.

2. I will go multimedia, go mixed media - keep drawing keep photographing but exploring video and written narrative

3. I will comment more on the process of what I do, demonstrate the process, play with the process, explore the process, subvert the process -make explicit the controversial and edgy aspects of my  work for example the sexual attraction, money, body image, exhibitionism and shame-overcome of the model procurement process

4. I will bring all my history, all my skills and knowledge from social work business and literature from whatever discipline I have worked into my work  

5. I will not be afraid of eroticism in my art but I will transform it into something more than porn! 

6. From now on my exhibitions will be different, they must include a performative element and a multimedia one. I must signal that I am to be taken seriously as a contemporary artist, even as I reference the history of art and religious imagery

7. Material circumstances cannot stop me making art, in fact often it is when I am living on the edge way outside of my comfort zone and with very few resources

that I conceive and execute my best work