IN MEMORY

This project was created in memory of my wonderful Uncle Peter who passed away at the beginning of this year. He leaves a beloved family behind, broken hearted. He was the coolest, most stylish, handsome, kind man and an amazing Dad. He travelled all over the world with his love of graffiti. I always looked up to him as a kid and admired his work ethic and sense of adventure. In creating this project, it was impossible not to focus on the feeling of loss and grief, as it is all encompassing. We grieve for ourselves, for our family. Anything other subject seems too insignificant.

I considered creating a piece about him, but I knew that this would be too painful. Even this simple digital piece bought me to tears. Instead, I chose to add nods to him via one of his greatest passions, graffiti.

Peter James McCann

04.12.79 - 28.02.24

ARTISTS - TREVOR WHEATLEY & COSMO DEAN

Graffiti writer turned fine artist Trevor Wheatley uses fabricated letters to create beautiful installations, usually outdoors. The letters are made to an extremely high standard in collaboration with Cosmo Dean.

Their work has been commissioned for festivals and brands. They often feature bright colours and chrome finishes and are suspended from the ceiling.

Their text will say names, brands or phrases, but often their work is shown as a collection of letters or symbols, jumbled up and stacked in no particular order. I appreciate the idea that the individual letters can be seen as art themselves, without needing to SAY anything.

The art itself seems simple, a sign or collection of letters that spell something out. However it's the clear craftsmanship that goes into these sculptural fabricated letters that I am enamoured with. Something that we're so used to seeing in everyday signage virtually all across the globe, turned into contemporary art and made to absolute technical perfection.

Sign made for Rolling Loud Festival, LA, 2022. Layered, fabricated letters in rainbow fade with chrome fascia's creating a 'bubble' like text.

There is limited information online about how these artists make their pieces. From my research into processes for fabricating letters, I would guess they are made using CNC routers or lasers, then hand finished with spray paints - paying homage to Trevor Wheatley's graffiti roots. The design values are immaculate in my eyes, with seemingly no imperfections in any of their work.

These artists have been a HUGE inspiration for my current piece. I aim to create similarly well made fabricated letters, studying each post and picture to try and figure out their process.

INCEPTION - FFS

Once I had decided on the word 'FORSAKEN' - I played around with the word using my iPad to create digital drawings, considering how I would make and display this piece.

I experimented in my signature calligraphy style. I appreciated the delicacy of the filigree and embellishments, but I knew I already knew following on from my previous project that I wanted to make some fabricated signage. I wasn't sure that this delicacy would work with laser-cut acrylic or wood. As it's so light, it has to be thick enough to withstand it's own weight.

I used a sans serif font to stack the words, giving me an idea of how it would look as a 3D object.

I then realised that the 'Forsake' - the present tense for Forsaken - would perhaps work better, especially because I could put some in between 'For' and 'Sake' to create a phase. This would allow me to hide the original meaning, of abandonment, grief and loneliness, and make something more light-hearted and even humorous. This also follows the theme of my previous project, Rock Bottom, which put a humorous spin on a deep and sad subject matter, creating duality and layered meaning.

What would go between 'For' and 'Sake'? Initially I thought 'God's' - however, I thought I should steer away from this due to it's religious connotations. I certainly didn't want to confuse my theme or subject by introducing religion, as I'm not entirely sure on my own religious beliefs and not ready to explore that particular topic.

For God's Sake

"Some people use expressions such as for God's sake, for heaven's sake, for goodness sake, or for Pete's sake in order to express annoyance or impatience, or to add force to a question or request. The expressions 'for God's sake' and 'for Christ's sake' could cause offence." - Collins Dictionary

For Christ's Sake, For Heaven's Sake - same as For God's Sake, religious connotations.

For Pete's Sake - Peter was the name of my lovely uncle who passed away at the start of the year, and who inspired part of my project. However, I thought this was far too literal.

For Fuck's Sake - "a euphemistic initialism used to express exasperation, frustration, anger, etc., without explicit vulgarity" - dictionary.com

I was drawn to For Fuck's Sake, it is a phrase myself and my peers use often and it has an element of humour due to it's profanity. It's something you say in bad times and good.

I had a few comment's from peers saying 'I always thought it was For Fuck Sake' - I found this article explaining why -

"If your first encounter with the phrase was hearing it said aloud, then it probably sounded like “for fuck sake.” That’s because most English speakers blend consecutive “s” sounds together from one word to the next, making it seem like there’s only one “s” to be pronounced."

"In case you hadn’t guessed by now, the correct phrase is: for fuck’s sake.

“Why?” you ask. Because something can only be done for or on behalf of someone or something’s sake. In this case, we’re concerned with “the sake of fuck” so “fuck” becomes possessive and gains an apostrophe and an “s.” Depending on how you’re wording the sentence, you may need to turn the sentence’s subject into a possessive noun. "

Has something bad happened to you or a friend? - For Fuck's Sake, that's bad.

Laughing so much your eyes water? For Fuck's Sake, that's funny.

Tripped over something on the floor? For Fuck's Sake!!!

It isn't hugely offensive (to me anyway) due to it's light hearted nature, however I did consider if using the word Fuck in a public exhibition would cause offense?

I spoke to my peers about it, to which everyone told me to go for it. After all, censoring a letter or a part of the word wouldn't make much difference, the word is still obviously a profanity, and if anything you're dumbing down the meaning by censoring it.