Dropouts Version 1 and Version 2. 1970, 1996 and 2005.
The original construction was completed in 1970 at Hoole Secondary Modern School and unfortunately destroyed in 1972. The craft teacher Mr Carter helped me to clarify my ideas. The work was my attempt to show how some people in Britain, skinheads, bootboys, drug users and so on represented by the green areas, are pressurized and squeezed by the weight of British culture, represented by the two boxes with the union flag painted on each, that they ‘dropout’ of society, whilst others shown by the grey areas conform. However they are all still British, as seen by a stripe of the Union flag extended from top to bottom.
In 1996 I had the opportunity to revisit the idea and to remake Dropouts. In 2005 I added a few small pieces and did some repairs to the work. British-ness is represented by the two boxes with the union flag on each. However the union flag is distorted both in colour and shape. Part of the stripe of the flag is curved and if the curves on the top and bottom boxes were extended to meet, they would form a deformed or crooked circle. The distorted union flags and this crooked circle signify a distortion, in my view, of a created intolerant secular liberalism, of British society, where there is now I believe, an intolerance of anyone and anything that disagrees with it, exerting a pressure on everyone and everything to conform to it. This pressure is shown being exerted downwards from the top box and upwards from the bottom box, by means of the top downward facing and bottom upward facing curved stripes. This pressure causes some people and elements of society to conform shown by the grey smooth areas and others to be squeezed out to become rebels, non-conformists, dropouts and so on shown by the green scuffed areas. A vertical stripe running through the construction shows that the population is still British as well as binding the art work together.
The top grey area is composed of three polystyrene vertical parts which can be looked through. They represent government, commerce and religion with the letter ‘s’ standing for the state. By way of contrast the bottom polystyrene grey area is solid and horizontal.
In the green area, the lighter green parts are tongue shapes, sticking out as a kind of an act of defiance and rebellion against what I believe is now a prevailing intolerant secular liberalism that is, sadly, British culture.