Mod as F**k, Hertford

Mark Daniels from the DANAD Gallery in Hertford gave me another opportunity to explore large-scale, illusionary artworks.

If you would like to see a 360º interactive panorama of this piece, you will enjoy visiting the fullscreen virtual tour, that I built recently to show the début exhibition off to an audience who engage primarily via their mobile phones or tablets.

At an old, dog-legged, gated section of the ancient town of Hertford is a building by the name of ‘Elbert Wurlings’ which is now the DANAD gallery run by the elusive Mark Daniels of Marden Hill fame.

Mark has selected works from myself, Jamie Reid (Sex Pistols) and Swifty (Straight No Chaser, Mo’Wax) for an exhibition never seen together before. There’s the piece from Jamie which attracted the attention of Malcolm McLaren which spawned the mainstream punk machine.

The DANAD Gallery is hosted in a purpose-built club venue which has various vestibules worthy of large scale liquid influence.

The stairwell set up a challenge I have wanted to go through for some time, a freehand non-linear distortion. I chose to paint two concentric circles mimicking the RAF insignia and the sign adopted by the Mod scene, a red white and blue roundel. The outer edge of the blue circle is positioned exactly on the viewing plane necessary for correct view of the composite illusion.

Its hard to pin point the origin of the roundel – the British Air Force adopted it for assisting the gunners recognition of our own fleet, from a French aircraft decoration but with colour variations. Pete Townshend claims it, some claim it was something Keith Moon wore as a gift from Peter Blake via Mary Quant. Nevertheless its a fantastic graphic with so many overtones it deserved a go with the old freehand circles…

Location

You can visit this permanent installation at the new DANAD Gallery in Hertford.