Alicia Framis
Alicia Framis, This is not your country, 2003, poster, Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne
The political element in art has returned with a vengeance to the agenda of intellectual discourse and artistic practice in the work of Alicia Framis. Not just a reaction to 9/11, this was already emerging as a response to continuing global conflicts and the surge of the racist and xenophobic far right in Europe. Framis proposes alternative models and strategies and the idea of art as antithesis as a corrective counterpoint to a society that is intrinsically linked to the concepts of radicalism and resistance.
In her double-edged exploration of the schizophrenic sense of nationalism(s) and contested loyalties, Framis acquired the copyright on the sentence ‘This is not your country’. The title of a song by Morrissey (‘Home sweet fortress/Gunshot – we hate your kind/Get back!/This is not your country’), the phrase originates from the Australian skinhead film, Romper Stomper, about a group of skinheads, who self-destruct through their racial hatred, fear and paranoia. Framis has presented the work on billboards and as posters in many European cities.
Alicia Framis, This is not your country, 2003, poster, Tyne Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne
Share this page