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TOn Saturday, artists Hilary Powell and Dan Edelstyn are selling their work from the past decade and a half. The reason? Funding for community-led renewable energy in Nigel Farage’s Clacton constituency. Former YBA Gavin Turk will hold the gavel and the family hope to raise at least £250,000 for the project.
The big ticket going under the hammer will be the remains of a gold Ford Transit car with £1.2m worth of fake bank notes that the pair blew up in London’s Docklands in 2019 at the height – or money shot, if you will – Bank Joba film about their efforts to fight against the dangerous nature of credit and technology, a fight that included printing money clear a debt of more than £1m.
The wreckage of the van and the burning banks were collected and remade as an Alexander Calder telephone which, for a time, hung in Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum. Now, for maybe £100,000, this sculpture could be in the center of your living room. (If you want a large living room.)
Powell hopes that the car will be bought by a public body, and has been in contact with the likes of the V&A and the Arts Council to see if they are interested in buying it for their collection. He said: “I have spent a week sending many emails and receiving encouraging responses.
Vodka bottles from a 2009 project that Edelstyn pursued to bring his Jewish parents back to their Ukrainian village. Once there, he tried to revive his parents’ legacy – and ended up selling the premium Zorokovich 1917 vodka at Selfridges.
Along with personal sales, the couple is hosting internet reading which will be held until 31 May. “We have £750 at the moment,” says Edelstyn. “We need about 250 times to support this project.”
But what is the purpose of building a power station in Clacton? Edelstyn refers to a report by climate campaigners DeSmog which says Reform UK has received more than £2.3m from oil and gas interests, polluting industries, and climate science detractors since December 2019, which is 92% of the party’s donations. “Building a renewable energy plant in the first Reform site,” he says, “is the most direct solution we can think of.”
The duo calls what they do Method Art. What is it? “Living thoughts to exist and not to represent them and to do: clear the real debt, build a real power station, plan for a public extension in Clacton. Artists not as commentators but as people who build the thing. “
The duo’s conviction that art should change the world came after Edelystn made a film about it Ukrainian vodka companyand he had an existing problem. It was brought on, he says, by a Guardian review (it happens) that calls him a businessman rather than an artist. “Just a phone call that made me wonder what I was doing.”
Two writers, George Orwell and Viktor Frankl, helped him find answers. “In (the 1946 essay) Why I Write, Orwell described the various reasons people do this: to participate in the crazy world around us; to look for wisdom; to get back at the people who told you you’d never get anything done. And then there was the sheer joy of beautiful looks.
Nazi survivor, psychologist and neurologist Frankl inspired Edelstyn in a different way. “In his book Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl disagreed with Freud and Adler and said that the desire to live a meaningful life was the main motivation of people’s lives.” I thought that was beautiful and it helped me to want to participate and live a meaningful, productive life.”
In the midst of his crisis, he and Powell learned about an American group that was buying and clearing debt. “That was the impetus for Bank Job,” says Powell. “When we get involved and change the world we live in, fighting political and economic conflicts. And from there Power Station came.”
They also tell of how, in the street where they live in Waltham Forest in London, the family helped finance, build and operate a solar power plant. How did this happen? “There are about 20,000 high-net-worth individuals across Britain who buy shares in for-profit organizations that offer this type of investment,” says Powell. “Partners invest capital that buys solar, so the building receives solar at no regular cost, but buys energy from the public utility at a cheaper price than it can buy from the grid.”
Edelystn says more than 130 roads in Waltham Forest have signed up to comply, with a further 50 across the UK.
Proceeds from Saturday’s auction will not go directly to the solar power plant. Instead, they will pay for the work the pair are doing to set it up in Clacton and make a film about the project. If they sell the explosive car, the proceeds will go towards running their non-profit company. Funding for the power plant will come from the allocation of shares and other funds to create a community service group.
The idea of going off the grid may seem appealing to those of us struggling with rising fuel prices, but there is a problem with this model. “Most solar providers like to work with councils or long-term businesses that have security and stability,” says Edelstyn. “Domestic is very difficult because you get different jobs in the same streets.
However, inspired by Frankl, the two are determined to make the seemingly impossible exist. “That optimism, against all odds, is why we are the kind of artists we are.”
Their Power Station video has already touched the UK’s energy policy: apparently, Ed Miliband came to visit the pair two weeks ago. They are now taking their example to Reform UK’s shelter in the hope that there will be enough local interest to work there, ideally on Clacton’s Electric Avenue, which runs from the pier and includes the Reform UK office. The success of local communities is critical to the success of this project. To this end, he organized a screening of the film Walthamstow’s Forest Cinema and he invited councilors and other officials from the Essex seaside resorts to attend. But are the two desperate? Of course their first call should be to the Clacton MP for funding. After all, the £5m Farage received from a Thai crypto billionaire suggests he’s not short a bob or two. “I mean, they’d want to lower everyone’s street bills the way a power plant would be,” Edelstyn recalls. “Then why I wouldn’t do that put his money behind what we’re doing?”
Of course. Mr Farage, if you’re reading this, please consider getting in touch with the craft to support what, I’m sure you’ll agree, is what your community needs at this critical time.
