2. Composition in Pale Yellow and Blue (‘Morden’)

‘Morden’ was produced as a direct result of the unexpected success of ‘Tassels’, but the artist himself seems to find it hard to summarise its appeal. Shuffling uneasily on his crutch he places the weight of his body onto his shattered left leg and regards the flag from a near horizontal plane. He strokes the grey stubble that covers his head thoughtfully

‘Ah yes.. my ‘difficult’ second flag…very much a transitional piece, although it does introduce some new elements, notably the lettering that becomes integral to my later work.’

Pressed as to it’s obvious symbolic resonance - as witnessed by phenomenal poster sales to young students, Fleydon seems bemused. "Of course it’s rooted in a sense of place and Morden symbolises a certain craving and a yearning for excess. ‘Morden/More-than’ is an obvious play on words, hence the two crests. But really, despite its popularity it is one of my least revolutionary works." He looks embarrassed for a while before his pale face lights up with pride. "It brings in the money though and being featured as a running gag in ‘Only Fools And Horses’ really helped my profile – so maybe I should be more grateful than I am!"

Disconcertingly he winked his jet-black glass-eye at me in conspiratorial way and leered again at my photographer before moving along to one of the most influential of modern artworks.

(‘Morden’ is on loan from Athena Productions Ltd.)

1. Composition in Yellow and Blue (‘Tassels’)

‘This was the work that really put me on the map. At the time I was very much immersed in both the 19^th Century Arts and Crafts movement and Blue Peter and this composition is a near perfect synthesis of the two.’

He leans forward for a closer look and his swarthy brow creases in concentration. ‘Look here, you see the yellow and blue are two separate entities literally joined together by a single thread and bonded together by the crest. And here to the left there’s a slight tear where that single thread has been rent asunder by an open top bus moving at speed – As I was saying earlier this is real art in motion! I couldn’t bear to repair it – it has become a statement in itself.’

This is obviously one of the more iconic of his works, signed by players at two cup finals.

‘Yes indeed, art as talisman and sacred object. We won the first final and it became the ‘lucky’ flag. We lost the second final and it became the ‘not quite so lucky flag’. However, being lucky half the time is still pretty good.’

An aside, an almost off the cuff remark, led to some more revelations – ‘It’s hand dyed you know. The yellow and blue symbolise the club’s ‘dyed in the wool support’, except that it’s made of cotton obviously…The tassels too are reminiscent of pairs of large testicles carelessly thrown onto a fence. Yellow and Blue testicles... the dog’s danglies as it were! It’s nice to see it again. It’s a happy work.’

(‘Tassels’ is on loan from the TransCorpUniBondDirect Corporation of Indonesia)

0. 'Why Flags?' - Fleydon Unfurled

Although now spending much of his life commuting between homes in China and Patagonia, Fleydon has never ceased drawing inspiration from his very public relationship with local football club AFC Wimbledon. Indeed it is at the club’s Kingsmeadow home where new works are premiered to a critical and knowledgeable public. ‘Tempest by name, tempestuous in nature!’ was how he once memorably described his relationship with the Tempest End, the most vocal of art spaces.

Art & Artists Review caught up with Fleydon to find out more about the man and his art.

Meeting in the foyer of the Hayward Gallery as the finishing touches are applied to the hanging of his latest work, we finally cornered this enigmatic figure for whom the word ‘spry’ might have been coined. We started with his signature art-form, the flag or as he prefers, the ‘banner-ama’.

What was it that attracted him so this unusual medium?

"Unusual? Well you might think so but let us consider the nature of the flag. What is it after all but a limp canvas? A proto-painting, a potential artwork capable of moving at one with nature through three dimensions rather than the two-dimensions associated with more traditional, or as I call it rigid, painting”

So the wind and other movements playing across the surface add an extra layer of depth to the work?

‘Just so but ..’ and here there was the merest twinkle in his ice-blue eyes ‘..let us not forget that it’s a also cheaper and easier to move around – important considerations for an artist on the move. But consider too that the flag resonates with symbolism. As a child I was enraptured by the story of the French knight who, late for the Battle of Agincourt, donned an old flag as a surcoat and rode off to battle. I like to think I am that knight! Of course…’ and here he threw back his heavily bearded face and let out a huge laugh ‘...they killed him soon after – but they kept the flag! I find that most significant…’

And why hang at a football match rather than in one of the more established galleries where those appreciative of his works might enjoy them in comfort?

‘Comfort? I’m afraid you have not yet grasped the essence of my work. The essential ‘art’ is not the flag itself...’ and here he gave a dismissive wave of a gnarled and heavily tattooed hand ‘…that is but a stimuli, little more than a rag to the furious bull of the public. No, the art lies in the dynamic tension between viewer, object and place. The frisson, if you will, of the unveiling. There lies the art and, though I am loath to say it, an exhibition such as this is little more than an echo or a memory of the real art – shared, enjoyed, interpreted and forgotten all in the space of a few minutes. That is my art...’

He paused for a second and stared down at the floor, his long black fringe flopping forward over his eyes as though lost in sudden thought. Looking up slowly he smiled and suddenly clutched his groin, shaking it vigorously in the direction of my photographer. ‘That and this of course!’ he leered unpleasantly. It was apparent that the civilised and the bestial were uneasy bedfellows in his unruly yet dynamic creative psyche – a point not lost on the man himself in his biography ‘God Help the Beast in Me (Later)’

After a prolonged period of nasal clearing (‘I love mucus – it’s so cthonic!’) Fleydon reflected on the nature and inspiration behind some of his best known, but often misunderstood, works…