Manx Radio is to be applauded for producing an hour long programme (as part of its Sunday Opinion) series featuring an interview with the artist Michael Sandle.
Sandle an acclaimed sculptor has associations with the Isle of Man having studied at Douglas School of Art and Technology, Isle of Man in the early 1950s. He has produced many notable works (on commission) including the Memorial for the Victims of a Helicopter Disaster in 1985 in Mannheim and the Malta Siege Bell Memorial 1989-93, a vast commission that included a major figurative sculpture, a 12-tonne siege bell and its architectural housing. He was a Royal Academician 1989-1998 and he has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors since 1994.
In the Manx Radio programme, presented by Roger Watterson, Mr. Sandle expressed some surprise at the amount of media attention that his recent his recent work 'Expulsion from Paradise' has generated, whilst accepting that he had expected it to arouse some interest.
However, the huge 15' by 5' triptych is a withering judgment on Tony Blair's support for the invasion of Iraq. In the central panel of Iraq Triptych, Tony and Cherie Blair are seen leaving Downing Street, in a charcoal sketch inspired by the Old Testament story of Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden. They are flanked by one panel showing a British soldier beating Iraqi prisoners. Another panel shows corpses piled up to the windows of Downing Street.
Sandle's work is without doubt one of the most enduring commentaries to date on the Iraq war and we would speculate that it will yet come to be regarded as the 21st century equivalent of Picasso's Guernica.
The Sandle interview can be accessed via 'listen again - Sunday Opinion' on Manx Radio.
An illustration on the drawing can be found at:
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League
25/06/07
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