John Baucher
John Baucher is a multi-genre artist who lives and works in Belfast.
Initially a photographer, John’s works spans visual art, sculpture, photography and his work with Unionist and Loyalist iconography is unique as well as thought provoking.
KIOSK catches up with John just after his return from a successful trip to New Zealand.
Part 1 – Becoming a full-time artist
Was there a point where you decided that you were going to work as an artist regardless of the consequences?
People were calling me an artist all the way back when I was a photographer. I don’t know if I thought of myself that way, I thought I was a journeyman photographer making images representative of how I saw the world. You know recording the present for the future with a vague notion that in the years to come the photographs will have pertinence. I hoped the photographs I was taking (and do take) would be part of the zeitgeist, but at the same time as the one framing those images, pre-visualising and composing them mentally then taking them physically, I have to understand and acknowledge that it isn’t possible to divorce yourself from your own thinking.
When do you think the shift to being an artist takes place?
About 14 years ago, I had been to Haiti, and after I had returned, I was going through my photographs, this was a commercial job, and I was very happy with the resulting book. But what I witnessed and experienced undermined long held values.
I had a peripatetic upbringing having left here in ‘72. We moved to England, attended Boarding School in Norwich, then I had lived in Lagos, in Nigeria, in the 1970’s which was quite an experience.
I saw my first dead body when I was around 13 years old. I thought I knew and understood the world but the trip to Haiti undermined that belief. I had seen extreme poverty, I had seen injustice and I started asking myself questions about what I was actually doing. I asked myself what is the value of the image.
And around about that time I started finding all these flags, Loyalist flags, and various other bits and pieces associated with Loyalist culture. And I started working with that material.
Is it then that you make a decision to work as an artist?
I think there is an artistry to making photographs a lot of which is just the act of making the image. I mean there no such thing as an overnight success it takes hours and hours of practice. I have to say now for me it is second nature....instinct. I never worry as I used to about not getting a particular image but those missed shots often live longer in the mind’s eye.
Perhaps I just got a little staid and bored with photography but by now I was finding all these flags and ephemera and I felt then, and now, that it is an interesting way to tackle the issue of identity. I haven’t seen anyone work with such materials...the iconography of them perhaps but not the physical emblems and identifiers.
There is a chaotic element to what I do primarily because I really don’t go out to take specific photographs, I much prefer the random nature of encountering something a scene or artefacts that speak to me. In essence, I give people little nudges with my artwork to get them to think.
Whether that is getting people to look again at flags, or specific parts of the flags, or making assemblages/ sculptures based on this idea of identity. I have been working at this for 30 years. That’s how long it is since I took the decision to move back to Northern Ireland.
What did you do before making that decision?
I used to work in technical publications for the aerospace industry, taking photos for component maintenance manuals and illustrated parts catalogues and I gave up that job to come here. But that job is where I learnt about composition and managing content. The starting point was isolate, simplify and show what needs to be shown. Coming from such a high spec industry was useful as it was a hard environment to learn in and I had a steep learning curve, but it instilled a visual discipline and having that kind of discipline was extremely useful in producing images for my artworks.
Actually, I used to have a stall in front of where 2 Royal Avenue is now, and I used to sell my photographs. I was the first artist to do that and it opened the way for others to do it. I do wish the council would allow a Sunday art market perhaps around city hall every Sunday to give space for artists to generate some interest and much need revenue.
Do you consider what you do innovative?
Yes, I suppose so as I can’t see anyone doing what I do. I can see people documenting the culture, taking photos of marches and bonfires and things like that, but no-one is looking at the imagery and playing with it, examining and reinterpreting that imagery to make work whether that’s a photograph or assemblage.
I take imagery which people are used to, and I put it in artistic situations which are out of context and which create doubt, raise questions.
I think looking at Loyalist cultural emblems scares people, and the areas in which that culture is displayed can scare people. There are times when what I do scares me. And that’s actually quite exciting.
But no-one could accuse you of approaching your work with these images in a sectarian way?
No, definitely not. I repurpose, examine, play with and explore ideas. Generally, I just follow my instinct, because I am not trained in any way, I’m an autodidact, and basically if it feels right I do it.
Yes, my work can be quite edgy but in my view art should be edgy. And there are times when I leave things alone, where I realise that there is a line I shouldn’t cross.
I also think that considering where I live, I have had to build up a certain degree of trust. In fact there have been times when people in Loyalist areas have said that they would only work with me because of that trust and because my work is seen as considered and respectful, even though it also challenges concepts and ideas which this community is based on.
Part 2 – A Unique Area of Work
How did the trip to New Zealand come about?
My brother lives in Auckland so visiting him 25 yrs ago I brought my portfolio and traipsed around looking for a possible exhibition. On my last full day of that 3-week trip I landed at the Auckland Museum with the newly installed curator of Māori art Paul Tapsell and we hit it off. We stayed in touch and when I was over for my brother’s wedding a few years later I was extremely lucky to be invited to stay on Pauls Marae (tribal home) in Maketu for a tribal/family reunion. What I witnessed and experienced stayed with me. Watching a British ensign flag belonging to the patriarch of the
Whanau (family) being carefully unfurled as the elders watched over was beguiling. It affected me deeply and also I would say was the beginning of my fascination with the syncretic nature of belief which was restoked when I visited Haiti and encountered voodoo.
One of the aims of this year’s trip (my 4th) was to see if I could get an exhibition organised especially in relation to my flag work but not necessarily so. I had hoped to work with a few different artist (weavers and carvers) but the new government and the cuts to funding for indigenous projects meant that was not possible. I was also keen to have the time to do research and writing. I decided to return to Maketu and had a fantastic few days there then Paul hooked me up with the fanatic and inspiring
Anne Billings and we hit it off. I’m now mentoring her in documentary/candid photography albeit remotely. We are also working on a project which if it comes off will be innovative and a coalescence of my artistic practice. We shall see how that works out but it is very very exciting. I don’t want to say too much more than that but I hope to be working with Anne and the local iwi around Katikati (an ulster settlement town).
Would you say that your work is starting to be recognised?
Yes, I think so. The Ulster Museum modern history dept bought a couple of pieces from “Worship the last thread as a relic” exhibition and another work that was selected for the Royal Hibernian Academy show in 2023 has subsequently been acquired by the Arts Council NI for the permanent touring collection. It’s slightly jarring that it took me to move to the sculptural/assemblage work to get recognition when I’ve been making photographs for 30+ years. That said I think all that work has permeated in some way and getting acknowledgement by two highly regarded institutions is justification for my pig headed (thran) approach. I might not necessarily have understood what I was
doing with my vexillogical exploits only that it needed to be explored. I might not be the quickest learner but 7 years on from the first exhibition of the work I think yes, I’m getting recognised.
What would your advice be to young artists?
Don’t be half arsed about your work. Just do it. You have to know what you want to do and you have to be quite single-minded about your work. There will be challenges and there will be down times but everyone has those. Just be stubborn and keep going. Like I said there no such thing as an overnight success. Believe in yourself and try and have as much fun as possible whilst exploring the possibilities of your mind’s eye. Oh, and also stay strong and good luck
Did you deliberately draw attention back to the symbols and emblems while many people are just used to them and don’t notice them or are trying to draw attention away from this imagery?
It was quite deliberate on my part. I started collecting flags and then I would ask people, when they were taking the flags down, to give them to me. At one point I had to find out what the protocols were with the flags. For about 5 years I was getting all the flags which were up in our area given to me once they came down.
By me taking those flags and reusing them, all sorts of questions emerge. I find I start looking at uses for the eyelets, for the ropes, for the material, for the colours, the emblems. As I said I looked at the protocols of the flags, what happens to them once they have deteriorated. What happens to them once they come down. What do people do with them. And what can I do with them? There are a few protocols about the disposal of the flags and so I’ve tried to remain faithful and respectful to them. I recall a conversation I had with some of the folks who put the flags up and I suggested retirement ceremony like the Boy Scouts in America. Things got a little heated!
Do you feel once you have finished a piece, do you move on?
There are some pieces I am attached to because I thought they were well thought out, or they create links to other cultures elsewhere. I researched the Boy Scouts of America and that organisation’s burning of flags in the United States. They collect up tattered flags, burn them in a retirement of the flags ceremony. I talked to people about doing a similar ceremony here. I think another part of my art is joining the dots and making connections between flags and other emblems here and elsewhere.
When I think about my work, it’s in an area where few people work and that means that a lot of what I do is quite unique. So that side of the equation does mean that I’m connected to it closely as I’ve often tracked flags over a few years and so am heavily invested with time and thought.
There is also another element in that I am often asking questions of the young people who put up these flags and build the bonfires. What is it that connects you to this activity|? What is it that enthuses you that you will spend so much time on putting up flags on lampposts? Again, just nudging people to think about why it is you do what you do. I haven’t really got much more of an answer other than well it’s what we do.
