The Story Behind Obnoxious Cxxt

Sometimes a piece starts with a clear idea and sometimes it just explodes onto the iPad and you work out what it means afterwards. That is often how visual journalling works for me. I put the thought down first and understand it later.

Obnoxious C**t was more like that.

The words came first, although clearly they came from a thought I had about an experience or two. It is confrontational. It points at somebody else. It accuses. But the more I looked at it, the more it started to turn back on me.

Pointing Outwards and Looking Inwards

It is easy to think about the obnoxious people you have met. You know the people who have behaved badly or those who have irritated us. Or the people who make us think,  “What the hell is wrong with you?”

This piece definitely comes from experiences with other people and I could probably name names but I won't.

However, if I am being properly critical, there is also an element of self-reflection in it.

It is very easy to point at somebody else’s behaviour but it is harder to ask whether you have ever behaved in a way that somebody else might have found obnoxious.

That is where the piece started to become more interesting to me.

The Colours Are Supposed to Clash

The artwork looks obnoxious because the colours are obnoxious. Pink aggression against mellow yellow. Plus Toxic green rain over the top.

Nothing is really trying to behave nicely. The colours fight with each other rather than settling down into something comfortable.

That conflict became part of the idea. The piece is not meant to be polite.

Something Toxic

The green rain also began to feel like something corrosive.

When you're on the receiving end of obnoxious behaviour, the experience does not always disappear when they do. It can stay in your thoughts and slowly eat away at you.

Someone once said that the image looked like a coronavirus.

That was not intentional, but I could see what they meant. It does look slightly virus-like. Negative, toxic and capable of spreading.

Perhaps obnoxious behaviour can be like that.

You catch the irritation like a germ and carry it away with you.

Turn It Around

The artwork can be looked at one way up or the other. If you are in the UK, maybe you look at it with the sun above you. If you are in Australia, turn it upside down. Different side of the world. Different perspective. 

And Australia is not perfect either. It rains there too.

That became another way of thinking about the piece. Things often look different depending on where you are standing and people do too.

It is very easy to decide who somebody is from your own position yet much harder to consider what they might be seeing when they look back at you.

Nobody Is That Perfect

That is probably where Obnoxious C**t ended up for me.

It began as something aimed outwards; a reaction to people and experiences but it became a reminder that none of us is completely innocent in the way we behave.

You can recognise something unpleasant in somebody else and still have to question yourself.

Maybe that is the uncomfortable bit.

Not that obnoxious people exist.

Obviously they do.

It is wondering whether, occasionally, you might be one of them.

Explore the Obnoxious Cxxt limited-edition silk screen print

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