Brian Dakin

My work grounds itself in localism, in the meeting of histories inherent in my culture. It is the integration of the visual and the written. The narrative of structure / voice and space and the interpretation through my work of the dialogues which have existed for centuries between social groups. It examines and re evaluates accepted canons of historic references regarding class and opens up questions concerning notions of order / power / knowledge inherent within social palimsets and evident in my discovery of the self governing. Aspects of the ruled which create divided practices and a culture based on unity and belonging. The work is intimate and generous in it's acknowledgement of all that has given me. It asks of the viewer to examine their own histories. It's strength lies in it's specificity and yet I create a methodology which can be transferred to any site and region any nation.

Essentially it is a struggle against an ideology which seeks to bury the past and seeks to advocate the individual. It resists the impositions of the establishments which take our 'owned' tongue and imposes the accepted, in order for us to fit in. We, the artists are the new historians and it is our duty to inform an audience that they have a history… Without knowing their history they cannot fully understand their present and therefore have no comprehension of the future. They have no 'belonging'. My work is raw, uncultivated, yet it says more in this state than held within the confines of the academic. It has a spirit.