Behind God's Back

When writing my blog on Dragan Andjelic, I came across this photo of Anne Aylor and me standing in front of his installation at the Pavarotti Music Centre. She is wearing her white coat having just come out of her busy treatment room where she practised acupuncture during her nine-month stay in Mostar. Anne had originally come to Bosnia Hercegovina at the tail-end of the war in the summer of 1994 and had written up her experiences in an article submitted to The New Republic with the title, “Behind God's Back”. On her journey there she wrote about a surreal traffic jam that had been caused by two toppled vehicles. “When the road has been cleared and we are given permission to continue our journey, we see what has caused the delay: two overturned container lorries full of pigs. The ones that are alive are being hosed down by soldiers. What is eerie is that the animals are completely silent. They are traumatised, dead or dying in the 40 degree heat. I wonder if it is the first time in history that an army has been deployed to help animals on their way to slaughter. We pass the containers and see dozens of UN vehicles facing the other way. It has been seven hours since the accident and these drivers will be here for hours more. Seeing our War Child sticker, one of them waves at me. I ask him if he speaks English so I can tell him what is causing the delay. He shakes his head, says that he is German. ‘Schwein,’ I say, the only word I can remember from my high-school German, and thumb in the direction of the overturned lorries.” A year later, War Child released the Help album with contributions from more than 20 artists including Oasis, Blur, Radiohead, Sinéad O’Connor, Paul McCartney and Portishead. It made the charity millions. The income from the album was used to provide artificial limbs for wounded children, food and clothing to orphanages, funding for school meals, support for a mobile medical clinic, the supply of premature baby units, even funding for mine clearance programmes. It was at this time that Linda McCartney heard about Anne's article and asked to read “Behind God's Back”. Perhaps that was why she decided to donate 22 tonnes of veggie burgers to War Child to be distributed in Bosnia. You can read more about Anne's work in Bosnia in Left Field.

The art of an "angel"

“A painter with a natural gift and receptive imagination producing a remarkable variety of intriguing work.” Sir Tom Stoppard

I first met Croatian artist, Dragan Andjelic, in Sarajevo in 1995. My wife, Anne Aylor, loved his work and bought four of his tiny mystical wooden paintings on yew, several of which look like miniatures painted by da Vinci. Dragan and I spent time together, both in Mostar and Sarajevo. I loved his blues guitar playing almost as much as his visual art. The following year he was commissioned by Ian Ritchie and Kathryn McDowell to produce an installation for the Pavarotti Music Centre. In 1998 my friend Jane Glitre, director of the Spitz music and gallery venue, invited him to exhibit there. He and I transported his works that combined different techniques and media. We had a hilarious time crossing borders without documentation. The Slovenian customs officials were wowed by his paintings and wanted to charge us for moving the works across their country. He and I persuaded them they were a load of rubbish and proceeded, unhindered by charge or fines. In 1998 Dragan won a commission from the Norfolk and Norwich Festival for twelve huge angels painted on wood which hung in the nave. In 2002 he was recruited as artist in residence for the City of London Festival. The last time I met Dragan was ten years ago on a Stop the War demo in London. Last week, out of the blue, a carefully-rolled portrait of me arrived here by courier from his home in Osijek, a present for my 70^th year. Puno hvala, Dragan. Thanks a lot. And if you are wondering, yes, his family name does translate as 'from the angels'. You can read more about Dragan here. And see his work here.