C LOOPSEEND

C LOOPSEEND
perspex multiple
edition of 40
15 x 39.5 x 2 cm
2007

Adapted from Works and Texts (1992), p. 288

A shop that I pass regularly in Camberwell on the way to the studio had a small red and white plastic sign saying C LOOPSEEND. Since the shop sold yams and sweet potatoes I assumed that this was the name of the proprietor; the double vowels suggested Dutch however and I was puzzled each time I passed it.

I finally asked the grocer if C LOOPSEEND was the name of the shop or a brand of banana and received the reply, 'No, it's broken, mate’. There should have been a sort of sliding panel covering the letters 'to make it say open or closed'.

I had failed to connect this sign with either its combined and opposing messages, or with the hundreds of complete examples I had seen in almost all the shop doorways in England.

I first introduced it into a painting (A Little Art History 1965) shown in my first one man show. Indeed it has taken on new resonance as it reflects aspects of philosophy, science and politics that I have encountered thereafter. I'm certain that uncertainty has no more eloquent emblem.

See also C LOOPSEEND in Music Scores