History tells us that the Knights Templar met their most disastrous defeat at the battle of Hattin. After marching across the burning desert they lost their fight for Jerusalem at the hands of the Sultan Saladin. I have always considered that it was a real shame that there was no Oasis or place to recover and rest during this last campaign, as the outcome may have been quite different and the pages of History read in quite another way.
This is the premise for this set of collages. As always the imagery is multi layered; not only do the Templars stand for a sense of Chivalry, Honour and Loyalty, - the Knights of Old – of Legend and of Myth, a belief in a code and a path to live one’s life by, a need and a want to be British, but the iconography is also used by the EDL as their emblems and motifs.
Here we see, the craggy, aged sycophant Godfathers of the modern day Templar Society standing against the Holy Land as their backdrop, their domain, in contrast to the dim-witted adults dressed only as Templars in fancy dress costumes, taking ‘selfies’. These people are not the ‘real thing’, a direct comment to the nature of extremist points of view and warped vision.
The land or the Oasis that these knights protect in these images is not real either. Yes, it is an Oasis, but this is the Oasis swimming pool, Swindon. The whole escapade becomes senseless, ridiculous, unworthy. The nature and concept of the Holy Land is then transcended onto England itself. Yes we can see Our England, Our Britain as our Holy Land; there is no issue with that, but I see a land divided into the rich and the poor, where if you have money you can go to College or University or otherwise its ‘tough luck son, best get a job stacking shelves at Aldi’.
I have mentioned before, in other works, how the Church and British Gas rob the people of the lane, whilst clusters of ‘Hoodies’ steal from their neighbours whom have moved into ‘affordable housing’, buying groceries from Poundland, watching endless commercials about quick loans and long term repayment plans. Our National Health Service raped by foreign tourists, patted on the back by a soft government who seems not to care for its own people.
What has happened to this England? This green land of plenty where we worked the fields, laughed with our neighbours, borrowed a bowl of sugar, said ‘good morning’ to a stranger on a Sunday morning? – only to be hacked to death by a machete because of your T shirt as bystanders watch with open mouths, recorded on a mobile, immortalised on U Tube.