The Worship of Bacchus

2010

Lead Artist | commission and exhibition
Carpentry by Len Horsey

Contributing artists:

Gemma Parker
The Wedding Supper, or Till Decree Nisi Do Us Part

Featuring Shane MacGowan, Liza Minnelli, Tommy Cooper, Katie Price, Bender Bending Rodríguez (Futurama), Kerry Katona, Errol Flynn, Elton John

David Bailey
Harlequinade, or Rita Sue and Herpes Too

Featuring Paul Gascoigne, Clarissa Dickson Wright, Trinny Woodall, Robert Downey Jr, Gram Parsons, Keith Floyd, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, Amy Winehouse

John Powell Jones
Olympian Revels, or Two Pints of Ouzo and a Kebab

Featuring Charles Bukowski, Keith Chegwin, Kate Moss, Pete Doherty, Oliver Reed, Lindsay Lohan, George W. Bush, Drew Barrymore

Charlotte Gould
Mission to the Hindoos, or Pilgrims of the Porcelain Throne

Featuring David Hasselhof, Rick Blaine (Casablanca), Mel Gibson, Rock Hudson, Sue Ellen Ewing (Dallas), Judy Garland, Janis Joplin, Samuel L. Jackson, Christine Cagney (Cagney & Lacey), Kiefer Sutherland, Patsy Stone (Absolutely Fabulous), William Shatner, Elizabeth Taylor (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)

Simon Misra
Fête Champêtre, or The Battle of B.O.G.O.F.

Featuring Tracey Emin, Father Jack Hackett (Father Ted), Courtney Love, Richard Harris, Billie Holiday, Richard Burton, George Best, Peter O’Toole

Laura Barnard
Studious Pursuits, or One More for the Road

Featuring Edgar Allan Poe, Truman Capote, Hunter S. Thompson, Ernest Hemmingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Judith Hearne (The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne), Blanche Du Bois (A Streetcar Named Desire), Dorothy Parker

Lead image: Gemma Parker
Photo by WeAreTape

Unrealised Projects was an investigation into the potential of unrecognised, unfinished or unfulfilled ideas by Sam Ely & Lynn Harris that ran from 2003-2011. One resulting presentation was an exhibition of typescript proposals by multiple contributors at Cornerhouse, Manchester, in which members of the public could purchase a starter-concept for £50. This was then licensed to the buyer for realisation within a two-year period.

I purchased a proposal by comedian and artist Harry Hill, the prompt being to remake George Cruickshack’s classic 1860 painting, The Worship of Bacchus, using celebrity alcoholics. I did this by subdividing the original into areas of specific interest, and matching seven focal-scenes with classic pantomime styles of the 16th Century (Romantic, Pastoral, Pantomime, Classical, Gothic and The Orient).

Approaching six artist-illustrators and working with carpenter and artist Len Horsey, I distributed a cast list of living, dead and fictional alcoholics between each artist who then responded within the nominated parameters.

The result was a series of populated wooden toy theatres displayed as part of The People You’re Not group exhibition at Cornerhouse, Manchester, exploring themes of celebrity culture, fame and idolisation.

Gemma Parker
David Bailey
John Powell Jones
Charlotte Gould
Simon Misra
Laura Barnard