THE DRINKING MATCH
1999
Woodcut – no 3 of a trio
122x170cm
ENQUIRE
The drinking match is set in miner’s welfare club where I used to drink with my father during a period where I viewed the world through the lens of the bottom of a beer glass . On the walls are nicotine-stained pictures of my mining ancestors who stare dimly into the present like yellow ghosts of the past, reminders of the hardship of life down a mine. Below them in the smoke-filled air are the haunted faces of my own generation who stare equally dimly through eyes blurred by cannabis and alcohol. Several generations all in one place entertained by the lone dancing man.
Outside a little girl is lost and looks through the window- she is the spirit of the wife, the mother and the daughter who has lost the man in her life to alcohol and drugs. I was told stories about the shell-shocked men who survived the death and destruction of first world war returning to the coal mines seeking oblivion in drink and violence, all the wages spent leaving the family scared and hungry creating a generational trauma that Is carried into the present. The spirit of this little girl watches over the men as she tries to get their attention, but they do not notice her because there is s drinking match going on.
Outside a little girl is lost and looks through the window- she is the spirit of the wife, the mother and the daughter who has lost the man in her life to alcohol and drugs. I was told stories about the shell-shocked men who survived the death and destruction of first world war returning to the coal mines seeking oblivion in drink and violence, all the wages spent leaving the family scared and hungry creating a generational trauma that Is carried into the present. The spirit of this little girl watches over the men as she tries to get their attention, but they do not notice her because there is s drinking match going on.