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Michael Sandle RA

A Mighty Blow For Freedom / Fuck the Media
Bronze, 1988
Edition of three
220 x 300 x 130cm

Inspired by a combination of the artists childhood memories of his parents outbursts at offending announcements received through their wireless sets, and a similar sense of rage experienced by the artist himself:

"In Germany I once demolished my tv set with a sledgehammer in a fit of rage, which I can recommend as therapy apart form it being a bit dangerous. I thought: 'What am I doing wasting my life watching this when I could be working!'It is the power to manipulate opinion and distort the truth that I hate so much about the media and in particular television advertising. The irony is that art often functions in a similar way to advertising - both can deliver their meaning subliminally. When A Mighty Blow for Freedom / Fuck the Media was first shown, at the Whitechapel, Nick Serota advised me not to cal lit that. I'm sorry I didn't call it Fuck the Fucking Media. It was a piece of therapy for me but to my astonishment it was also enormously popular. Obviously I'm not the only person in the world who hates the media."