one by Richard Bartle. Sheffield based contemporary artist. working in mixed media at bloc studios. series one can be seen at one aldwych hotel london as part of the permanent collection

Richard Bartle. Contemporary Art

ONE.

The title One was inspired by the year in which this series was created -1997, my own personal reflection on the society that the outgoing Conservative party left behind, and my own aspirations for the future under a new socialist government. One represented the self, one implied togetherness, and one was the Tory battle cry of individualism over society i longed to see in the past.

To me those passing years brought motorways crammed with silver cars and polluted cities, neat gardens in pseudo rural settings - ignorant of nature, housing estates crashing into the countryside and the river banks, an end to social housing - or the care of it, a jet set society at the expense of the environment, mass poverty - disillusionment and exodus, and a crazy blinkered vision of the problems around us.

As with all my work One was a personal attempt to heal. To confront the problem. To somehow lay aesthetics over dystopia and fix it. To offer a utopian vision. Was it naive? on refection maybe. But you have to try.

These days this entire series can be seen at One Aldwych Hotel in London, as part of their permanent collection, a wonderful serine place in the heart of the city. A place where the individual is pampered and made to feel special, an environment of luxury that does not cringe from its duty to try to enlighten the individual as to their place in the world, and a society where the workers always seem happy and part of something special.

sheffield sea life centre