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As you may have noticed I occasionally like to critique the art found in some of the many hotel rooms or Edinburgh flats that I stay in. My hotel in Barbados has quite an extraordinary picture, painted by Manilda in 88 (I am guessing 1988, though it could be from any century). It is a piece of art that, I think, has changed meaning since it was created and thus reacts rather brilliant to changing moral systems and ways of examining the world, thus making it possibly one of the great masterpieces of whichever century it is from.
It depicts an old Barbadian man seated in a simple metal chair on a beach, or more likely given the straightness of the water’s edge by a pool. A small child is leaning on the old man who looks down towards him. At first sight, and if we lived in the innocent/blinkered 1980s we would assume that this was a grandfather, telling some tall tale to his rapt grandchild. It’s a touching scene and one that would make most people’s hearts melt. To begin with.
But now we know what we know about the 80s (of any century) we look at the piece with fresh eyes and wonder if behind this veneer the artist (Manilda) intended more. There is something a little bit unsettling about the grandfather figure. His eyes are downcast and hidden, his mouth seems captured in a moment of apologetic shock, he holds up the palms of his hands as if expressing innocence or the fact that he is not in control of his own actions. There’s something murky and hard to define around the cloth of his trouser area. One of his feet it too big too. But I don’t know what that means.
And then we look further at the small child, his shorts tucked awkwardly around his buttocks, standing at a somewhat unnatural angle, his head jerked upwards as if he is unhappy about something. And where are his hands and what are they doing?
Is the old man a grandfather at all? Is something utterly unseemly and wrong going on? Is the old man saying, “I am sorry for what I am doing. Just be quick and we will speak no more of it.�
It’s an utterly horrific thing to have hanging in our holiday lodgings. And yet in its ambiguity has a lot to say. Like an optical illusion that changes from being something sweet and heartwarming into something else chilling and wrong. Once you’ve seen it, you can’t unsee it. And I think that’s maybe what the artist intended, with his or her spooky, dead-eyed strange grandfather.
More names revealed for the next run of RHLSTP
Steve Coogan will be one of my guests on the (now sold out) gig on 13th October.
Rebecca Front will be joining Sarah Millican on 20th October
Josh Widdecombe will be chatting to me on 27th October.
Buy your tickets here
You may have noticed these shows sell out pretty fast once some names have been revealed. You can get around this by buying your tickets now. All the line-ups are going to be brilliant.
If you can’t get to see them then nearly all of them will be released free on audio and for the first time this series on video too.
Also if you join the kind people who are donating a pound or more a month, I have now instituted a system where you will be sent an email informing you of the guests who are likely to sell out a few hours before the rest of the non-pound a month idiots are told.
It’s like priority boarding - plus you’ll get access to a secret channel with loads of extras (like more backstage chats from RHLSTP) and get a badge and get entry into the monthly draws and help to fund future internet projects.
Check out all my latest news in the September newsletter here .
