Having looked at CCTV for images that appear to represent genuine, authentic, uncontrived examples of human behaviour, I turned to search for a more physical archive (as opposed to Google’s digital form) to draw from and change physically.

Photoshop allows us to alter imagery unblemished or invisibly. I like the idea that the postcards are ‘obviously’ changed/altered by hand and not by machine- with guile not technology.

‘Adjusted Postcard- Romford Market’ 5×7 2017

I was trying to make the couple with the pram the true subject of this image as opposed to Romford Market, the place they are in. I wanted them to define the place not the other way round. Im also thinking of paint’s ability to cover things up, disguise, hide etc

The couple look isolated now and there is an odd melancholy about the image.

‘Adjusted postcard of Station road New Milton’ 2017 

Some of the people who people these postcard scenes appear unselfconscious. All of the photos were taken in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s before the ‘selfie age’. Cameras were still fairly novel and people didn’t know what to do in front of them. This next group are trying to laugh and relax, look ‘normal’ but there is a stiffness about their poses that suggests a deep discomfort at being photographed. Or maybe this is them relaxed on holiday?

‘Adjusted Postcard – Corton beach holiday camp’ 2017

I began by thinking about erasing things. Rauschberg famously erased one of DeKoonings drawings and Cristina de Middel used correction fluid to edit chairman Mao’s Red Book.

I wanted to erase a photo of Margeret Thatcher. I found an autographed version of the photo I wanted but it was too expensive. So I thought until I can raise the funds to obliterate Thatcher I’d practice on another odious Margaret- Princess Margaret.

She looks like a fussy cloud of pollution. This is a postcard of her sister Queen Elisabeth with faeces on her coat-

A small amount of paint in the right colour and in the right place can be very effective. Here I have suggested Queen Elisabeth the second has faeces and blood on her coat and up her neck. I wanted to give the impression that she had hastily dressed having just come from an abattoir or murder.

(Adjusted Postcard)’The launching of HMS Ark Royal Invincible’ 5×7 2017

I wonder if I could have made this event even more disappointing by removing the tug as well as the battleship? Its as if it was launched and sank immediately.

The crude or hurried painting-out obscures but doesn’t deny its deceiving the viewer. I thought about the way Doris Salcedo talks about the crack in the turbine hall floor in the Tate being filled after the piece had finished. She said it left a scar like the scar that is left in her country by the disappearance of political enemies of the state. It is till there in the floor today and always will be. The scar signifies reality and stands as evidence of the owner’s lack of passivity. A record or the consequence of an event.

O’Keeffe2017