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| Clive Hicks-Jenkins, The Green Knight Arrives, Penfold Press (artist copyright) |
Arthurian legend is full of warriors, but the Green Knight
is unique – unearthly, even monstrous, yet still a knight. His unexpected
arrival during the Christmas feast is one of the most famous entrances in the
canon of British literature, accompanied in the poem by what Clive calls a
‘forensic’ description of his outlandish appearance.
Clive looks beyond the poetry to explore the character and cultural
implications of Gawain’s nemesis, in an intense portrait of mingled power and
vulnerability. The upper body of the Green Knight fills the frame, his
statuesque head and massive arm suggesting the might of an ancient god – but in
a sensitive pose reminiscent of Rodin. That flowing beard hints at the graphic
gravitas of a playing card king; look again and it is a river flowing through a
tattooed forest. Our 21st century Green Knight is a modern
primitive, whose identity is etched into his skin.
A fascination for the decorated body has long been a feature
of Clive’s work, and here there is a powerful pictorial contrast between the
blood-red towers and battlements of Camelot and the organic forms inked into
the Green Knight’s skin. As he prepares to bang on the door of King Arthur’s
great hall, we can’t help but notice the lopped oak tree on his raised arm. Is
this a record of violence done to nature? Nothing is explicit, but much is
implied in this luminous vision of contrasting cultures: medieval Christian
civilisation on the one hand, and, on the other, the timeless wild.
The Green Knight Arrives is available as a screenprint, in an edition of 75, from Penfold Press.
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