One crucial lesson I learnt the hard way: you can’t ‘do’ politics when you’re at constant war with yourself. If you’re always criticising yourself, any dialectical opponent can easily perform character assasination on you with a well-timed verbal insult. (I recall a life-beaten Londoner looking at me with weary-yet-strong judgement as I tried to scaleContinue reading “UK bank holiday and the 2026 council elections”
Author Archives: John B Ledger
Art/creative projects. But it’s not that simple. I can go for months, even longer lacking purpose and direction because I lack any ideas that have any sense of purpose and meaning. It’s how I define, and have defined myself: against a world in which I’ve never felt equipped for, or any good at, but awareContinue reading
Locked inside the Maddening House
There is no exit, but death. But up on the tops the notion at least remains; a breathing space necessary for the escape-desperate pathos to recognise itself. The possibility of a way out via peaceful parliamentary measures had its last chance in a hot June month of 2017 that momentarily melted percieved certainties as ifContinue reading “Locked inside the Maddening House”
1993. Perranporth, Cornwall
I always reflect on this holiday. I’ve reflected on it through the music of the time; the dreamy-quality to the pop music on Virgin Fm or whatever station it was. I’ve reflected on it through the incomparable movie ‘Jurrasic Park’ that set a new precedent for cinematic hedonia before we would be bogged down inContinue reading “1993. Perranporth, Cornwall”
Art, indefinitely. The 2020s.
(This is the final chapter from the publication ‘Straight A’s: Anxiety, Anorexia, Alcohol, Ageing, and Art’, made for an exhibition of the same name). I admit I’m still here; still trapped within the Straight A’s system of self-critical thoughts and go-to ‘remedies’, but I know I can’t physically upkeep these routines for much longer. IContinue reading “Art, indefinitely. The 2020s.”
Works that didn’t go into Straight A’s
Straight A’s was a once in a lifetime exhibition – at least in terms of life so far. It’s only for this reason I am sharing work that didn’t make Straight A’s, because I feel it is interesting to speak about. Canary in the Coal mine If I had been succesful with funding this sculpturalContinue reading “Works that didn’t go into Straight A’s”
Big Exit: film
I had been reluctant to release Big Exit online, because it was primarily a film made to be seen in a gallery space. However, some people have told me they never got to see it in the space – so, on their behalf I have shared it here.
Straight A’s. 17 January – 11 April 2026
The Millennial Gaze. This long-running joke. Best Amongst Ruins Image from the burn-out decade. Big Exit..
‘Canary in the Coal-mine’ at the Barnsley Civic.
Thank you everyone who came to the Barnsley Civic for ‘Canary in the Coal mine’ on April 11th, a talk and screening to close the exhibition Straight A’s at The Cooper Gallery. Big thanks to Lucy Dewsnap for brilliantly chairing the event. ‘Canary in the Coal mine’ was a substitute title that I never usedContinue reading “‘Canary in the Coal-mine’ at the Barnsley Civic.”
The long dark night of the political soul.
In the 2009 era-defining book Capitalist Realism, the writer Mark Fisher defined ‘reflexive impotence’ as state beyond that of apathy and cynicism; a reflex of impotence to the state of the world, societal affairs – the very things changing and affecting our everyday lives. The belief that any possibility of changing anything has already beenContinue reading “The long dark night of the political soul.”
John B Ledger 