There is a peculiar shade of blue that pervades certain parts of Accrington. Not always seen, it can nevertheless be sensed as a strong visual memory over long periods of time and sometimes in other places, far removed from this former manufacturing town in East Lancashire. The blue can be put to various uses. In modern parlance, it is a “positive” force. And the curator invoked it to solve, or put to bed a number long-standing obsessions that seemed only to muddy the waters during the indeterminate early 2000s.
Photograph of a colour photocopy of a drawing using dip pen and ink and coloured ink wash. Richard the Photocopier drew a number of these preparatory, private sketches in the early 2000s, in a bid to rid himself of Slav, Teutonic and Finno-Ugric folkloric images that had pursued him – to very little purpose – from a very early age.
Photograph of a colour photocopy of a collage comprising two drawings, using mixed media. The images were inspired by a book on ethnic Hungarian costume found in the Museum of Ethnography (Néprajzi Múzeum), Budapest 2003.
Photograph of a damaged colour photocopy of a black and white drawing using dip pen and ink of various ethnic Hungarian folk costumes. Date, 2004. Coloured ink was applied to the photocopy by the curator immediately prior to photographing it.
