Sam Mahon - 'The Art of Protest'
Mair Gallery, 4th–22nd November 2009
I boarded during my last year of school. The experience didn’t please me. I wrote a song about it, set it to the tune of Leonard’ Cohen’s Suzanne and rendered it at the house concert on a possum skin-lined guitar with tenor Mark Hasselman signing back-up. I was seventeen and it was a terrifying experience. The next morning at breakfast we sat down to utter silence under a high arched ancient roof where dusty sparrows lifted their tails and aimed tiny shits at our bowls of luke-warm porridge. At first there was just the tinkling of silver spoons against porcelain, and then to our relief the tension was broken by a Fonzerelli character who leaned across the toast and said in very level tones, “Who do you think you are to be saying things like that?” It was good, it was direct and it initiated a discussion that was long overdue.
Discussion is something that we seem to have grown afraid of. For the most part consultation has been replaced by presentation and we seem, in comparison to the ebullient seventies, to have evolved into a society of simpering acquiescence. This exhibition seeks to promote discussion. At the very least, it speaks its mind.
I will be available at certain times during the show to debate any points of view that you may wish to raise. You will find me easily enough; I will be the one with my back to the wall, wearing a flak-jacket and full-faced helmet.
Sam Mahon 2009.