Both of these pictures are inspired by Victorian engravings from the illustrated London News, a lurid periodical which, before the use of half-toned photographs, was illustrated with quickly-executed engravings depicting various murders, suicides and natural disasters such as shark attacks and earthquakes. The first issue, published in 1842, contained a Dreadful Railway accident near Paris; an Awful Steamboat Explosion in America; and War in Afghanistan;among other less interesting articles.
Theatre of Death and Fast Track were originally part of a series of pictures that I did rather obsessively in a sketchbook - drawn with biro rather than engraved - detailing the various interconnections of evil toys, silenced witnesses, volcanoes and various other protagonists and scenarios that coexisted unhappily in my imagination at the time. I had no idea what each picture would look like when I started
Paper size 640mm x 485mm
Print size 480mm x 355mm
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