Martin Firrell
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Martin Firrell (born April 4, 1963 Paris, France) is a public artist who produces words-based pieces in public space. His work has appeared as digital projections and installed type, it has appeared on cinema canopies and ticket backs, on till receipts, and in public toilets. Robbed of their usual context, Firrell’s often provocative words take on a totally different emphasis and meaning.
Firrell was born in Paris, unexpectedly, on the Champs-Élysées outside what is now Sephora. He was educated in England but left school unofficially at 14 because he 'had no more use for it'. He educated himself during his absence from school by walking and reading.
He lives in Soho, London and works exclusively in the British capital, described by The Guardian newspaper as a public artist who places text in public spaces because he believes art’s place is at the centre of everyday life, not as a specialist activity at the margins of mainstream society.
A large proportion of Firrell's work is created at Soho patisserie, Maison Bertaux, which acts as his 'studio, canteen and general HQ'.
Firrell is also London Cultural Ambassador for the International Herald Tribune, and he curated the newspaper’s first London Arts Season in 2005, titled ‘Breathless...’ after Jean Luc Godard’s nouvelle vague film of the same title.
Trained originally as an advertising copywriter, Firrell is often compared with American public artists Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer.
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[edit] Early life
Firrell educated himself, walking and reading in the Norfolk countryside. He read early 20th century literature extensively citing the works of Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein, and the French writer Marguerite Duras (with whom he shares his birthday) as key influences on his later development.
It was a passage in Anais Nin’s novel The Four Chambered Heart that set Firrell on the path of public, socially engaged art. In the passage in question, the novel’s protagonist declares that literature fails to prepare us for, or guide us through, the calamities or challenges of life, and is therefore worthless.
Firrell sets out to remedy Nin’s ‘worthlessness’ of words by making works which are relevant to the vast majority of people, concise, and freely available in public.
He has taken on topics including the politics of ageing, individual liberty, the right to personal idiosyncrasy, cultural diversity, faith, and fair and truthful government.
[edit] Art practice
In the press, Firrell has claimed to lack enthusiasm for contemporary art and has been openly critical of obscure, gallery based works with an over-reliance on the caption to communicate intelligible meaning. To an extent, in his own work he has abandoned ‘art’ in favour of the caption itself.
In a recent interview Firrell claimed three properties form the foundation of his work: concision, utility, and public availability; and his emphasis on the social value of art echoes that of French Romanticism and the French painters Courbet and Delacroix.
In most of Firrell’s works it becomes apparent that uppermost is the belief in the redemptive power of art, directed at extending or protecting the right of the individual to create his or her own unique way of life and to live it accordingly without interference.
Whilst the means and aesthetics may be very different, Firrell’s works can be regarded as the logical descendants of paintings like Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People.
[edit] Recent works
National Gallery, London I want to live in a city where... (digital projection onto the Trafalgar Square elevation of the National Gallery) 2006
The Guardian When the world’s run by fools it’s the duty of intelligence to disobey (projection onto Parliament) 2006
Tate Britain All men are dangerous (words of wisdom projected onto the Duveen Gallery walls, commissioned by Amy Lamé for Duckie) 2006
Trafalgar Square The one irreducible truth about humanity is diversity (installed text to the North wall of Trafalgar Square commissioned by Events for London, funded by the International Herald Tribune) 2005
Donmar Warehouse Everyone should be entitled to at least one personal idiosyncrasy (placards, postcards and vinyl panels funded by the International Herald Tribune) 2005
Curzon Cinemas 70th birthday commission Ageing is a privilege not a predicament (cinema canopies, ticket backs, digital animation, t-shirts) 2004
