Martin Firrell
British, born Paris France. 1963
Martin Firrell is a French public artist who stimulates debate in public space to catalyse social change. He uses language to engage directly with the public, provoking dialogue, usually about aspects of marginalisation, equality and equitable social organisation. The artist's reported aim is 'to make the world more humane'. His work has been summarised as 'art as debate'.
Curated by
Wikidata
Q6775431
The Question Mark Inside
Digital Projection, St Paul's Cathedral, London UK, 2008
Firrell put the question, 'What makes your life purposeful and meaningful?' to theologians, scientists, artists, atheists, humanists and the general public. The collected responses, from the domestic to the sexual to the sublime, were project onto the Dome, West Front and Whispering Gallery of St Paul's Cathedral to mark its 300th anniversary.
Sun (Arabic)
2008
I Don't Understand
2008
Organised Religion Is Hard to Follow
2008
I Don't Think This Is What God Intended
2008
Breasts
2008
Every Human Life Is Owed to a Woman
2008
Love
2008
Sex
2008
Wisdom (Hindi)
2008
Power Is Always Temporary
Digital Projection, Royal Opera House UK, 2007
In an historic first, public art texts are projected onto the front cloth of the Royal Opera House before each act of Puccini's opera 'Tosca'. The artist reveals the opera-like but real-life experiences of jealousy, infidelity and violence in the lives of Ivy, Jeanne, Mary, Leonie, Rita and Isabelle, 6 women aged between 60 and 84.
Surrounded by Army
2007
You Can't Shower
2007
How Not to Die Tomorrow
2007
Counter Culture Rising
12 Digital Billboards, UK, January to March 2020
The Counter Culture Rising series conveys a cinematic story of alien visitation, climate catastrophe and war, artificial intelligence, hippy philosophy and advanced states of consciousness as an antidote to troubled times.
A Flying Saucer
2020
The Earth's Crust
2020
War Is Failure
2020
Living Peacefully
2020
Any Word
2020
Billboard on the Highway
2020
War Is Coming
2020
Computers Control Opinion
2020
Reincarnation
2020
Telepathic Transit
2020
Super Consciousness
2020
Alice B. Toklas
2020
Skin
4 Digital Posters, Clear Channel UK, October 2019
The Skin series was created by the artist in conversation with people from different ethnic backgrounds in celebration of Black History Month.
Ethnic
Enough
Enough
2019
Identity Is a Fiction
(Black)
(Black)
2019
Identity Is a Fiction
(White)
(White)
2019
Union City
9 Digital Billboards, UK, July to August 2019
Based on conversations between the artist and Clare Short (Secretary of State for International Development 1997-2003), the Union City series explores the moral content of socialism.
A Moral Idea
(with Clare Short)
(with Clare Short)
2019
Immoral
Flaws
Flaws
2019
All Members
of Society
of Society
2019
Secure Employment
2019
Equality for Women
2019
Safety at Work
2019
Progress
2019
Cooperative Society
2019
Protest Is Liberty's Ally
2019
Power and Gender (Women)
6 Digital Billboards, UK, January to March 2019
The Power and Gender series was developed in conversation with 5 women who have experience of power in business, political, or public life. The series examines the difference between the way women and men gain, hold and use power.
Ugly Sweaty Men
(with Inga Beale)
(with Inga Beale)
2019
When Men Hold Power
(with Annie Rickard)
(with Annie Rickard)
2019
Distorted Power
(with Clare Short)
(with Clare Short)
2019
The Simple Idea
(with Alex Mahon)
(with Alex Mahon)
2019
Women Make Up Half the Population
(with Liv Garfield)
(with Liv Garfield)
2019
All Power Is
Temporary
Temporary
2019
Six Feminist Pamphlets
London. MF Co. 2018
Six feminist texts on the nature of power, sexual abuse and social inequality, and the route to gender equality.
Power and Gender (Men)
6 Digital Billboards, UK, January to March 2019
The Power and Gender (Men) series examines the changing archetype of masculinity, the impact of social conditioning on men's emotional responses, and the characteristics of power when held by men rather than women.
All Men Are Dangerous
2019
It's Easy to Be Angry
2019
The Great Heroes
2019
A Good Man
(with Justin Cochrane)
(with Justin Cochrane)
2019
Men Are
Really Great
Really Great
2019
It's Back to
Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds
2019
Remember 1967
6 Digital Billboards, UK, 27 July 2017
The Remember 1967 series marks the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act, which decriminalised, under certain circumstances, sexual relationships between men. The series re-states the demands made by 1960s activists that still warrant action today in the artist's view.
Embrace Lesbianism
2017
Reject Male Supremacy
2017
Overthrow the Social Order
2017
Embrace Lesbianism
2017
Overturn the Ideology
2017
Sexual Revolutionaries
2017
Renounce the Monster
2017
Homosexuals and Women
2017
Society Is still Dominated
2017
Fires Ancient
Digital Projection, St Paul's Cathedral, UK, 1 to 4 September 2016
Fires Ancient projects fire on to the dome of St Paul's in waves of colour consistent with flame of increasing temperatures (from dull orange to yellow to blue to brilliant white). The artwork marks the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London.
Fires Ancient (Yellow)
2016
Fires Ancient (Blue)
2016
Fires Ancient (White)
2016
Fires Modern
Digital Projection, National Theatre UK, 1 to 4 September 2016
Fires Modern presents 18 histories, or 'metaphorical fires' from the progressive movement as digital projections on to the fly tower of the National Theatre. The series begins with the Lord Mayor's dismissive and inherently misogynist jest that 'the great fire is no threat, a woman could piss it out'.
This Is Slavery
2016
Fascism Fails in Britain
2016
Hanging Is Abolished
2016
Clause 28
2016
Lesbians Are Out!
2016
Anti War Messages
2016
All Identity Is Constructed
Digital Billboards, UK, 1 to 28 August 2016
All Identity examines the premise that everyone's identity is a construction. Some identities may be less usual than others - the self-realisation of trans people for example - but this artwork conveys the idea that every identity is equally and arbitrarily invented.
I Am an Albino
2016
I Definitely Do Feel Like a Free Person
2016
I'm Not Who Everyone Thinks I Am
2016
Cómo Vivimos / How We Live
Digital Projection / Portraiture, Spain, May 2016
The Cómo Vivimos portrait series conveys the wisdom of the four eldest inhabitants of the Spanish hill town of Fanzara near Valencia. Their insights are presented as digital projections onto the elders' faces creating composite portraits of inner and outer truth.
El Futuro Es Corto
2016
The Future Is Short
2016
We Are Not Afraid
2016
It Ends Here
Installation, London UK, 10 to 12 July 2014
It Ends Here is an installation of five underground environments examining power inversion and the cyclical nature of abuse and brutality in the French novel Planete Des Singes (Planet of the Apes) by Pierre Boule, and in the Twentieth Century Fox films based on Boule's work.
Abuse Begets Abuse
2014
Paranoia Begets Paranoia
2014
Idiocy Walks With Wisdom
2014
Brutality Begets Brutality
2014
Brutality begets Brutality (detail)
2014
Resistance Is Grace
2014
I Want to Live in a City Where
Projection, National Gallery UK, 5 to 6 July 2006
I Want to Live in a City Where presents a wish-list of liberal policies as digital projections onto the facade of the National Gallery of Great Britain. The series comprises an ambitious, artist-led agenda for civic agitation and renewal.
No One Is Sent to War
2006
Violence Never Works
2006
No One Has to Be Afraid of Standing Out
2006
Security Notice
VDU Monitors, Railway Stations, London UK, 2005
Public information systems are re-programmed so that the standard railway station security message is accompanied by the artist's existential 'security message' evoking the burden of loneliness.
Hunty City
Video, Shoreditch Town Hall London UK, 1 to 12 Mar 2017
Text outlines, performance, info-text, music, found dialogue and internet video clips evoke the UK's LGBT+ language, Polari (a coded language enabling LGBT+ people to express themselves whilst avoiding detection as criminalised homosexuals) and the defiant American drag slang from 1970s New York City drag balls.
Going to the Ranch
2016
Fish & Chips
2016
Angel Food
2016
Complete Hero
Digital Projection, British Army, London UK, 2009
The Complete Hero series consists of 18 video portraits, combined with text and graphics, created during the artist's residency with the British Army. The artwork provides a progressive and plural definition of heroism through the eyes of military personnel, scientists, philosophers, writers, comedians and performers.
The Great Heroes Have Always Wept
2009
The Hero We've Been Sold
2009
Quentin Crisp Said
2009
Women Are Much More Honourable
2009
I Can't Bear the Sight
2009
We Need a Great Civic Hero
2009
All Men Are Dangerous
Digital Projection, Tate Britain London, February 2006
All Men Are Dangerous was created for Tate Britain against the backdrop of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, conflicts that were widely held to be colonially motivated and against international law.
Think
2006
Security Is No Replacement
2006
Untitled
2006
The One Irreducible Truth
Digital Billboards, London UK, 2005
In The One Irreducible Truth, the artist paraphrases the renowned American sex researcher Alfred Kinsey who noted that difference in human sexual responses was the only universal constant.
Writing
Modified Till Receipts, Borders Books London, June 2004
Electronic tills at Borders Books are re-programmed by the artist to add an additional text to the bottom of each till receipt. In this way, thousands of public art texts are brought into circulation during the lifespan of the artwork.
Vernon God Little
2004
Paula, Michael and Bob
2004
Lanzarote (Houellebecq)
2004
Avec Excoffon
Fly-posting, Marseille, France, 2010
To Understand A Thing Fully Is To Be Able to Say Nothing About It reflects on the nature of understanding and knowledge. Also titled 'L'Éloquence du Silence', the artwork implies that silence must inevitably fall when understanding exceeds the expressive capabilities of language.
To Understand a Thing Fully
2010
To Understand a Thing Fully
2010
To Understand a Thing Fully (Artwork)
2010