Alex Hayward
1. BIGGER THAN JESUS - The Fool on the Hill, The Beatles, 1967, 2020
Pencil crayon, gouache and ink on paper
Image size: 38 x 63 cm
Frame size: 59 x 83 cm
Frame size: 59 x 83 cm
This work is framed in a dark grey wood frame with a window mount and is glazed. Scan the QR for further details about the work. The artist: 'It's hard...
This work is framed in a dark grey wood frame with a window mount and is glazed.
Scan the QR for further details about the work.
The artist: "It's hard not to grow up with their music in some capacity, but 'The Fool On The Hill' was a Beatles song that I'd never heard before. I immediately said to my Dad that it sounds like a carousel, with a plodding but playful musicality.
But just when we feel like we know where we are, Paul McCartney starts wailing into a rift of 'Round and Round and Round and Round', and the whole thing descends into a kind of madness. Pop music crashed into Cleavehurst, my Dad's childhood home, which was very English in culture, but very Catholic in faith.
So this work is full steam organ glamour, with my Dad on a horse ride through the fracturing middle class home of pre-war values in a post-war world. Flanking the ride are two figures in black outfits with white collars, each vying for influence over my Dad's childhood.
A baroque-style Paul McCartney figurine conducts the whole procession, making the outcome of jostling feel inevitable. By the end of the decade, there are new idols, and new acts of devotion. The Bible is out, and the Beatles are in. We are steaming ahead and spiralling into a new world."
Scan the QR for further details about the work.
The artist: "It's hard not to grow up with their music in some capacity, but 'The Fool On The Hill' was a Beatles song that I'd never heard before. I immediately said to my Dad that it sounds like a carousel, with a plodding but playful musicality.
But just when we feel like we know where we are, Paul McCartney starts wailing into a rift of 'Round and Round and Round and Round', and the whole thing descends into a kind of madness. Pop music crashed into Cleavehurst, my Dad's childhood home, which was very English in culture, but very Catholic in faith.
So this work is full steam organ glamour, with my Dad on a horse ride through the fracturing middle class home of pre-war values in a post-war world. Flanking the ride are two figures in black outfits with white collars, each vying for influence over my Dad's childhood.
A baroque-style Paul McCartney figurine conducts the whole procession, making the outcome of jostling feel inevitable. By the end of the decade, there are new idols, and new acts of devotion. The Bible is out, and the Beatles are in. We are steaming ahead and spiralling into a new world."
