Christian Newby / SCUM Banner / Digital print on cotton
2015-2020
Digital print on cotton
60 x 82cm
Limited edition
This work is printed on demand.
This digital print takes its pattern from Newby's 'Harlequins on a Hillside Reading the Newspaper with Palm Leaves and 'SCUM'; a ceramic cast of a cardboard box.
An example of Newby's multi-layered practice, this work bears traces of drawing, ceramics, casting, print and textiles. Incorporating his fascination with stock characters from the Commedia dell’ Arte and the woebegone clown Pierrot, rendered by the 19th century political cartoonist Gustave-Henri Jossot, Newby uses the stock character of the harlequin as a dual satirical or ornamental motif, parodying the laconic political summaries of tabloid headlines and sentiment within papers like The Sun and The Socialist Worker.