Pierre Novellie
The Martyrs, 2019
Paint and ink on 9 individual hand cut wooden boards
78 x 78 cm
30 3/4 x 30 3/4 in (variable)
30 3/4 x 30 3/4 in (variable)
Copyright The Artist
The piece is inspired by my feelings on the effect of reality television on the mental health of participants and viewers. Depicting these people as martyrs was inspired by the...
The piece is inspired by my feelings on the effect of reality television on the mental health of participants and viewers. Depicting these people as martyrs was inspired by the manuscripts and illuminations I saw and analysed as part of my degree in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic Studies. The mediums were chosen as a way of doing some good with spare, low-quality particle board from IKEA and my vague awareness of wooden, painted ikons in the Eastern Church tradition. I normally work in messy Indian ink expressive styles so using acrylics for such stylistically restrictive work felt like penance.
PANELS (LEFT TO RIGHT, TOP TO BOTTOM):
Erica Pawson. Committed suicide after filming an episode of Jeremy Kyle where her husband was successfully persuaded to leave her for her own good after using a "lie detector" to "detect" his repeated infidelity. Their segment was cut. Here we see her in an act of forgiveness toward a penitent in white.
Sergeant (Ret.) Wesley Durden. Iraq war veteran. Committed suicide after appearing on "Next Great Baker". The TV show did not announce his death until he had been organically eliminated from the show, two months after the fact. We see him in beret, surrounded by a bastardised Old Glory as shields, clutching a bundle of arrows as the eagle does in the US Presidential Seal. With the other hand he invites us to eat on a martial banner tablecloth with a lion passant.
Kellie McGee. Committed suicide after being filmed (and apparently goaded into) insulting her sister's appearance with "hurtful and horrific" statements for an episode of Extreme Makeover. They filmed this before her sister's surgical makeover, which was then cancelled for medical reasons, leaving nothing but the hurtful footage. Here we see her under a benign light, hiding her face in grief and shame next to a lake, referencing the myth of Narcissus.
Sophie Gradon. Committed suicide after appearing on Love Island and being extensively trolled over her appearance, personality and sexuality (she was one half of Love Island's first same-sex pairings). Here we see her as Miss Great Britain, in royal garb, wearing a Pride cape-fastener with one hand raised in benediction.
CENTRAL PANEL: written on this panel is Matthew 7:3-5 "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." This appeal for people to withhold hypocritical judgment is suitably obscured, first by whitewash and then by gold.
Michael Thalassitis. Committed suicide after appearing on Love Island and being largely portrayed as an unsavoury character. Here he is shown caring for his elderly grandmother having moved in with her to act as a carer in the months before his death. The beaker of curative seawater is a pun on his surname as well as a symbol of his status as a carer.
Cheryl Kosewicz. Committed suicide after appearing on Pirate Master. She blamed the show for stress and relationship difficulties with her boyfriend, who committed suicide shortly before her. Cheryl was a doctor of law and former special prosecutor in a Special Victims Unit dealing initially with children and then with adults. We see her here as Justice with scales, unmasked, protecting the vulnerable.
Sinisa Savija. Committed suicide after appearing on "Expedition Robinson", widely regarded as the first reality television suicide. Sinisa and his wife had fled Bosnia for Sweden during the wars of the 1990s and he was studying law and learning Swedish. After being eliminated from the show, he said "They are going to cut away the good things I did and make me look like a fool, to show that I was the worst and that I was the one that had to go". Here we see him as a learned man, with the Tower of Babel destroyed behind him. On the left, a Swedish shield for his country of refuge and a defaced black shield for the genocide and war he left behind in Yugoslavia.
Daniel Küblböck. Committed suicide after a career as a pop singer and actor launched by reality show " Deutschland sucht den Superstar" and furthered by more reality shows such as the German version of "I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!" He spoke extensively of the bullying and mental illness he suffered as a result of his profile. Here we see Daniel in the posture of King David in Imperial purple, playing an Anglo-Saxon lyre on a throne. He is surrounded by a shield of the Pride flag and a shield of his native Bavaria.
PANELS (LEFT TO RIGHT, TOP TO BOTTOM):
Erica Pawson. Committed suicide after filming an episode of Jeremy Kyle where her husband was successfully persuaded to leave her for her own good after using a "lie detector" to "detect" his repeated infidelity. Their segment was cut. Here we see her in an act of forgiveness toward a penitent in white.
Sergeant (Ret.) Wesley Durden. Iraq war veteran. Committed suicide after appearing on "Next Great Baker". The TV show did not announce his death until he had been organically eliminated from the show, two months after the fact. We see him in beret, surrounded by a bastardised Old Glory as shields, clutching a bundle of arrows as the eagle does in the US Presidential Seal. With the other hand he invites us to eat on a martial banner tablecloth with a lion passant.
Kellie McGee. Committed suicide after being filmed (and apparently goaded into) insulting her sister's appearance with "hurtful and horrific" statements for an episode of Extreme Makeover. They filmed this before her sister's surgical makeover, which was then cancelled for medical reasons, leaving nothing but the hurtful footage. Here we see her under a benign light, hiding her face in grief and shame next to a lake, referencing the myth of Narcissus.
Sophie Gradon. Committed suicide after appearing on Love Island and being extensively trolled over her appearance, personality and sexuality (she was one half of Love Island's first same-sex pairings). Here we see her as Miss Great Britain, in royal garb, wearing a Pride cape-fastener with one hand raised in benediction.
CENTRAL PANEL: written on this panel is Matthew 7:3-5 "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." This appeal for people to withhold hypocritical judgment is suitably obscured, first by whitewash and then by gold.
Michael Thalassitis. Committed suicide after appearing on Love Island and being largely portrayed as an unsavoury character. Here he is shown caring for his elderly grandmother having moved in with her to act as a carer in the months before his death. The beaker of curative seawater is a pun on his surname as well as a symbol of his status as a carer.
Cheryl Kosewicz. Committed suicide after appearing on Pirate Master. She blamed the show for stress and relationship difficulties with her boyfriend, who committed suicide shortly before her. Cheryl was a doctor of law and former special prosecutor in a Special Victims Unit dealing initially with children and then with adults. We see her here as Justice with scales, unmasked, protecting the vulnerable.
Sinisa Savija. Committed suicide after appearing on "Expedition Robinson", widely regarded as the first reality television suicide. Sinisa and his wife had fled Bosnia for Sweden during the wars of the 1990s and he was studying law and learning Swedish. After being eliminated from the show, he said "They are going to cut away the good things I did and make me look like a fool, to show that I was the worst and that I was the one that had to go". Here we see him as a learned man, with the Tower of Babel destroyed behind him. On the left, a Swedish shield for his country of refuge and a defaced black shield for the genocide and war he left behind in Yugoslavia.
Daniel Küblböck. Committed suicide after a career as a pop singer and actor launched by reality show " Deutschland sucht den Superstar" and furthered by more reality shows such as the German version of "I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!" He spoke extensively of the bullying and mental illness he suffered as a result of his profile. Here we see Daniel in the posture of King David in Imperial purple, playing an Anglo-Saxon lyre on a throne. He is surrounded by a shield of the Pride flag and a shield of his native Bavaria.