Iron Signposts

 

If you go walking in the hills around here, you'll have seen one of these. It's a Peak District and Northern Counties Foot Path Society sign. This society - based on Turncroft Lane in Offerton - selflessly erects beautiful iron signposts for the convenience of walkers. They've been doing it for a while, too - this is the first, from 1905. 

I've always thought these things are beautiful, little green jewels to delight the eye. Some of the older ones even have the altitude on them.

 

 Now you can admire them without the hassle of walking, as their website has most of them on display. Check them out here. 

I've got one quarrel with them, though. At some point they shortened their name to Peak and Northern Footpaths Society. Fair enough; except that some lunatic thought it was a good idea to go round painting out the words 'district' and 'counties from existing signs. And it looks ridiculous.

Voicebox - another made up artist?

  The history of art is full of made-up artists. Some, like Nat Tate, are just elaborate hoaxes. Some, like Pietro Psaier, were attempts to make money. But they're definately not real.

   Then there are ones you're not sure about. They seem real, as in there's a real person out there. But are they genuine, or fake?

    Mr. Brainwash, for one. You watch 'Exit through the gift shop'  - a really fine film - and wonder: is he for real? It might be one of Banksy's more elaborate hoaxes, after all.So you google him.  He does Warhol -type stuff, mass-produced art based on other people's images - even down to the soup cans, except his are aerosols. So he's a plagiarist, if there's such a thing in art. And he's got a significant online footprint. Looks real enough. But still...

   Banksy's real enough. Except he might be more than one person.

   Which brings me to Voicebox.

   He's got posters up all over the college.

   Is he real, a bluffer, a fraud, a hoax, or a scam?

   He hasn't got much of an online footprint. Just a tumblr blog.

   His work seems to be mostly pictures of posters with smartarsed graffiti sprayed on them. Some of it looks familiar too. So looks like he's a plagiarist as well. He's nicked his image from Fonejacker, for god's sake

   He claims to have political ambitions, says he's going to stand as Stockport's next MP and Manchester's next police commissioner. No chance of winning, of course. So must be a stunt.

   Or is he a real, deluded fool? Or an attempt at hype? Or a joke by a higher profile, real version of his imaginary self?

   When you start thinking about this stuff, you get lost in a maze of bluff and double-bluff - who are these lying bastards, and why are they lying? It's like being George Smiley. Except, for him, the outcome mattered. For me, I soon stopped caring either way. Just tell yourself  'it's all art', and have another drink.