Resurrection (for Jean Cocteau)

"This Maquette, (for this piece now represents a sculpture approximately 3 meters high) recovers a gesture of the artist which was formerly called Testing to Destruction, Barcode Jesus in a Barcode world. Beneath this silver wrapping is a year 2000 white Bondi iMac upon which there was an animated moving image version of Dali’s Crucifixion of St John - where instead of a real life version of Jesus hanging upon the cross, the character of Jesus was represented as filled with todays consumer barcode.

Within the artwork was always the proposition that the work on an older computer might fail which it in fact did. The failure of the computer was never intended to be a failure of the artwork - in fact this dicing with the fate of all technology was one of the central issues of the work whilst entangled with today’s consumerism. The work was then retitled: Waiting for Resurrection

The artist was informed of this self-destruction whilst in an exhibition at the Guggenheim in Venice where a presentation of Jean Cocteau’s work was exhibiting. Cocteau was famous for many artworks including Orpheus and Eurydice where Orpheus must enter the Kingdom of Hades to free his wife Eurydice - the route of entry was via a mirror through which Orpheus had to pass through. The new title of this work is Resurrection: For Jean Cocteau. 
Latest Releases & Exhibitions 2025
United Kingdom :Testing to Destruction
​RWA Open EXHIBITION Nov 2024/Jan 2025 

This is a combined artwork, a religious and scientific thought experiment. To the right, the video "Neon Barcode Jesus in a Barcode World" which will be exhibited as part of the installation on the Bondai mac.

The video, Barcode Jesus in a Material World is a 2017 work by Terry Flaxton, a piece of video art which commented on consumerism. Recently I realised, having shot the Ridley Scott Making of 1984 for Apple, that I had a unique in on where the digital realm has gone ocver the years. So I realised that an installation comprised of Barcode Jesus displayed on an original Bondai Snow White iMac which has been unused for twenty years, was a unique way to reveal some issues. The mac will be positioned on a four foot high plinth and then turned on to run the video for 90 days non-stop.

So the work is reborn as Testing to Destruction which will examine if yesterdays technology can stand the pace of today's consumerism. Should the computer ‘fail’ before the end of the exhibition, this is then an attempt to burn in an after image of Barcode Jesus into the iMac, similar to that of the Turin Shroud. Should the work complete the exhibition then it will go on to other exhibitions until it produces the after image or simply self-destructs.
ICELAND - Listasafn Árnesinga Art Museum, Hveragerði, March/April 2025 
Teotihuacán​ is a short work referencing the Mexican archeological site and is derived from Barrier Reef which is a meditation on how we do not take care of our planet…  We all know we should give more - the oceans are the life blood of the planet - they cover most of the surface of the earth - and the most delicate part of the oceans and the seas are the reefs where the most beautifully coloured creatures on the planet live amongst the sculptural formations of coral - they are an expression of beauty and themselves an emblem of the stability of the ecosphere that we live within - but these are now most at risk. These images are composed of water.
 Many of my works from 2006 onwards are
 published on Sedition Art
 I started working with Sedition Art around 2015 when
 I got a call and was asked might I want to become a 
 curated artist on that platform. By now, 2024 I'm
 currently the seventh most collected artist on the platform
 out of around 2000 artists. Some of whom are very
 well known. So at this URL you can find around 70
 works. Please click the picture or this link Sedition
 Art and you'll see the extent of my current phase of
 work. Equally Long Form Artworks are an important
 area. Beneath, there's a few shorts that arose before
 2015. ​
VENICE BIENNALE ANIMA MUNDI EXHIBITION 2024 - A Sad and Divine Comedy 2024 Comprising of Barrier Reef and Blue Revelation: Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Barrier Reef is a meditation on how we do not take care of our planet…  We all know we should give more - the oceans are the life blood of the planet - they cover most of the surface of the earth - and the most delicate part of the oceans and the seas are the reefs where the most beautifully coloured creatures on the planet live amongst the sculptural formations of coral - they are an expression of beauty and themselves an emblem of the stability of the ecosphere that we live within - but these are now most at risk. These images are composed of water.

​Blue Revelation: Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a meditation on the centre of our planet which sits in the very deepest part of both the earth and within the human heart. It is a live being which dispassionately provides the heart beat and tempo for everything that lives. As the images reveal the shape and nature of the blue planet when looked at from beneath - slowly they unfold to reveal the earths exterior - which is in deep trouble. These images are composed of rock.
The following three works, Hearts of Oak, Once Upon a Time in Venice (Un Tempo Una Volta) & Mexico Landscapes of the Heart were released by Sedition to celebrate the Venice Biennale 2024 and were showcased at the Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello Venice during Anima Mundi in March, April, May and June 2024 and a various other locations in Venice during the Biennale. 
SEDITION RELEASE - 5th April 2024  - 1 Edition Remaining - Artwork Description From Sedition: Hearts of Oak marries the digital and analog worlds through the lens of traditional English crafts. Set against the backdrop of Somerset, England, Hearts of Oak showcases individuals engaged in age-old practices such as weaving, cheese making, sculpting and rope making to celebrate the tangible value of handmade items in today's digital age. Inspired by the poem Leisure by W.H. Davies and a verse from Lord Byron’s Childe Harold, Hearts of Oak ponders the essence of a life well-lived and the quiet wisdom found in traditional craftsmanship. As one of the pieces in Terry Flaxton's trio of works released around the Venice Biennale, Hearts of Oak offers a grounding perspective on the digital transformation of our lives through the prism of the enduring nature of analog traditions. 
Soundtrack: A recording of Emily Burridge's Cello improvisations remixed and arranged by Terry Flaxton. Published  2024, 4K Video, Duration  11:28
SEDITION RELEASE - 4th April 2024 - Sold Out - Artwork Description From Sedition:
​Once Upon a Time in Venice (Un Tempo Una Volta). This Venetian phrase, when translated into English, is emblematic of the classic opening of European fairy tales and sets the stage for an exploration that deepens the conventional Venetian experience. Eschewing water imagery - yet evoking the feeling of water - Flaxton employs reflection and refraction to gradually transition from clear images to kaleidoscopic images and generates visions of Venice, to then push the boundaries between reality and fantasy to reveal what is behind Venice's 4th Wall. The piece begins with a journey beneath Venice's bridges, where coloured silk cascades over the camera lens, creating brief views into another realm. This artwork creates a deeper dive into what Venice symbolizes and challenges the viewer to look beyond the scenic to discover Venice’s essence, Soundtrack from a piece by Alan Lethbridge, rearranged by Terry Flaxton. Published  2024, 4K Video, Duration  13:51
SEDITION RELEASE - 3rd April 2024 - 2 Editions Remaining - Artwork Description From Sedition: Mexico: Landscape of the Heart delves into the heart of Mexican culture through a blend of abstraction and representation. This palimpsest of ideas, reveals underlayers of Mexico's rich cultural heritage and the influence of iconic artists like Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. This work is a journey into the essence of Mexico, where ancient glyphs and modern representations converge to form a profoundly dynamic and personal reflection on the country's past and present. Mexico: Landscape of the Heart, Hearts of Oak, Once Upon a Time in Venice (Un Tempo Una Volta) screen in the Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello Venice during Anima Mundi in Spring and Summer 2024. Published  2024, 4K Video, Duration  29:22
Zagorsk 1992  4 minutes

It's 1991 and I've been to Russia a few times now - but our director goes down and I'm left to make up the footage he's missing. We've been near the border of Ukraine and Moldavia - and then back up to Leningrad/St Petersburg and Moscow. We have time spare so we go visit a KGB occupied Cathedral where the keep all the notes on 'the disappeared' which we've seen plenty of evidence of in the forests as townspeople had insisted we come see the unmarked massed graves of Jewish people... Meanwhile, the Orthodox church is noticeably on the rise - and we weren't yet to know it would become Nationalist - but the beauty of some of the places we went into - and this one which was stark and unadorned asked for a representation of all the above...
On This Day The Eternal Flame Of The Chimera Burns Forever 2003 2 minutes 30 seconds

In Turkey, at Cirali, the eternal flame burst forth out of the rocks - and being a child affected by Ray Harryhausen's animations of Jason and the Argonauts and all those other mythic films - having found something that began so many myths, I felt the need to find a way to speak about that.
One Second to Midnight 2006 3 minutes 15 seconds

One night I found myself wanting to make something - so I set up a camera pointed at a tv screen and said to myself, my rule is I will shoot for 30 minutes and whatever is there is the content... Then I wrote some poetry which to me epitomised the plight of refugees the world over  and also spoke about how the world was developing...