On This Day

Dwain Cuttles showing off

Fifteen Years Ago

Britart phenomenon Dwain Cuttles brought traffic to a halt in London’s West End at the opening of his live event, Me Me Me, in which Cuttles posed in the display window of Bondyke’s Gallery as the Rokeby Venus and made an exhibition of himself.

Five Years Ago

In an impassioned speech to members of the Policy & Resources Committee meeting in Heckerswyke, Councillor J Peastake Smythe painted a grim picture of the menace posed to municipal railings, structures and property by the spread of metal rust. This, he warned, was a silent killer that could bring about the untimely suspension of council services and, in the fullness of time, even threaten life and limb. As sole proprietor of Metallife Preserving Paints Ltd, Cllr Smythe was able to bring to the subject an intimate knowledge of the workings of rust acquired through thirty-seven years in frontline services in the war on corrosion. Speaking on behalf of all present, Committee Chair Mrs JP Smythe thanked the councillor warmly for his expertise and input, noting down the need to place an order for state-of-the-art paintwork solutions before time ran out on such an opportunity. As she reminded her colleagues in a closing flourish, ‘for a ha’porth of tar the balloon went up.’

Ten Years Ago

Celebrities of stage and screen jostled with collectors and serious art investors to place their bids of purchase at the opening night of YBA star Dwain Cuttles’ art experience, Suck Eggs. Sole item for sale was Mr Cuttles’ grandmother, Enid, currently in a care home near Eastbourne and represented in the

exhibition gallery by a single Polaroid photograph on the far wall. Critics and curators hailed this as a new turning-point in the Cuttles odyssey.