TV Xmas '89 (paint and mixed media installation in studio space)

This work was inspired by a poem I started at the time of the Romanian revolution, and carries the same title.

When Ceaucescu was overthrown the new regime court martialled and executed him and his wife, then promptly abolished the death penalty.

All this happened on 25th December, Chistmas Day in Western Europe, and the horriffic video evidence was flashed across the world, appearing on the news on Christmas Day.

Before then all Chistmas Day news was ever about was the Popes blessing and the Queens message.

1989 was the first hard-news Christmas.

TV Xmas '89

I saw Ceaucescu, was he smiling at me

Or some ghost from Tiananmen Square;

I saw the people fight to be free

While blood spilled everywhere.

Was there peace breaking out all over the world;

Well sometimes it's so far from won.

Saw a Yanqui tough talking while Panama burned

And in El Salvador the war still raged on.

I might have said Happy Christmas Timosoara, Bucharest,

May the blood of your martyrs be blessed,

But on screens filled with horror tinged with hope and dismay,

You did what you did on our Christmas Day.