Pioneer of contemporary typographic art - Brighton artist Mike Edwards - has released a striking new image featuring Nadia from Pussy Riot made from a redacted version of William Wordsworth’s famous poem ‘I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud’.
The artist, best known for his depiction of David Bowie made from Bowie song titles - which was signed by Bowie and sold in aid of Cancer Research for £22,000 - creates ‘readable’ visual images from text.
The text in this artwork - Wordsworth’s poem expressing a sense of freedom and joy elicited by his gazing at the beauty of nature - is symbolically redacted in places - reflecting current issues of censorship, secrecy and political oppression by various governments - with particular relevance to the cases of Snowden, Manning and Assange.
Adding to this, the beautiful face of Nadia is also ‘covered-up’ by the ‘de-terrorised’ yellow balaclava - simultaneously ‘redacting’ beauty - but also visually representing the daffodils in the poem.
The artwork is entitled ‘Article 10’ - a reference to the Geneva Convention For Human Rights. It also hints at the artist's awareness that as well as creating a work of art - he's also created a commodity. The image of Nadia comes from an original photograph by Igor Mukhin. The composition echoes the early 20th century Russian Constructivist poster ‘Books’ by Aleksandr Rodchenko - more recently re-created by Mathew Cooper for Franz Ferdinand’s album ‘You Can Have It So Much Better’.
The stormy, semi-abstract painted sky - over which Wordsworth’s poem is written symbolizes the storm of controversy surrounding Pussy Riot’s challenge to Putin’s government and their subsequent incarceration. It also echoes the dramatic English Lake District scenery around which Wordsworth ‘wandered lonely as a cloud’ - and where the artist Mike Edwards grew up.
‘Article 10’ is released as a signed Limited Edition giclee print of only 50 - available from 21st January 2014. Visit www.mikeedwards.co.uk for more details.
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