The artist and writer Laura Grace Ford speaks of ‘the stain of a place’. I understand this as referring to something so ‘lived in’ that you can never remove the traces it has left; spaces that trigger personal as well as generalised ghosts. I’ve always found it hard speaking about my home town. Natives areContinue reading “The indelible mark of your home town”
Author Archives: John B Ledger
‘NEW BRUTALITY’ (2024, mixed media on paper)
This is ‘NEW BRUTALITY’ Sorry for being trapped in the 20th century dealing with the 21st. And sorry for being unable to make any sense whatsoever – locked as we are inside the maddening house, where a ‘just do it’ Californian approach to life has left us all burnt out people on a burning planet. DeepContinue reading “‘NEW BRUTALITY’ (2024, mixed media on paper)”
I admit, I have more emotions in common with the contemporary ‘fash’ than the contemporary Left. Hear me out…
I’ll begin audaciously by saying that nobody destroying communities up and down England over the past week likes themselves. To be even more audacious, I’d say that every one of them secretly hates themselves. I know the signs. I know the politics of self-hate: a reality of hopelessness where only vengeance and bullying bring joy.Continue reading “I admit, I have more emotions in common with the contemporary ‘fash’ than the contemporary Left. Hear me out…”
My ‘little’ tree by the side of the M1
I’ve put a lot of work in at my studio a lot of the last 4 days, and I am very pleased with the way things are going from the perspective of the artwork. However, the ache from neglecting other aspects of my life has been creeping in. These are aspects of my life thatContinue reading “My ‘little’ tree by the side of the M1”
Describe your most memorable vacation. 1993 was a year that was crucial in forming my sense of futures and pasts. 9 years old, my dad had become a teacher, an historic unprecedented feat in family history. We now had a car and my parents decided that they no longer wanted to go to my grandparents’Continue reading
Pressing the 1997 button
All memory is worked upon backwards – they are private sculptures that are never completed. Today when I think back to spring/summer 1997 the ambient backdrop is the b-sides from Radiohead’s OK Computer, which I didn’t actually hear until the 2000s. I heard bits of OK Computer and The Prodigy’s The Fat of the LandContinue reading “Pressing the 1997 button”
Art from the last 14 years.
I’ve done a lot of these virtual retrospectives on here. But why not another? Whatever the future looks like, even if it’s a continuation of the same but worse, the last 14 years have certainly been something that deserves attention as it potentially comes to a close. Roughly from 2010 to 2024, I’ve stuck specificallyContinue reading “Art from the last 14 years.”
First protest vote as tragedy, the second as farce.
‘Sleepy John’ has had his eyes off the ball. I’m not as sharp as I was in the 2010s (although, who is?) Wounded and winded by the personal and political over the last 5 years, improvements to my general quality of life as I entered middle age became the only real priority. The mental gymnasticsContinue reading “First protest vote as tragedy, the second as farce.”
The General Election looms and I feel worryingly depoliticised
(Image of Ossett town centre, June 2017). There’s clearly so much at stake. During the last 14 years we have experienced a horror show, and despite the potential epochal collapse of the Conservative Party, the path before us is far from reassuring. But I just cannot find something that pushed me forwards for so long:Continue reading “The General Election looms and I feel worryingly depoliticised”
Good news and bummer news.
I’ve finally got a studio space. It’s in Wakefield, the next town down the road. It’s a little more than I was wishing to spend, but after a series of difficult years that have forged a kind of internal inquisition into my devotion to my work, I now feel like I’ve got a concrete commitmentContinue reading “Good news and bummer news.”
John B Ledger 