REENACTMENTS

There are reenactments within reenactments in the GANTOBverse. A bit of KLF, a large dollop of Bill Drummond inspired material, the recreation of a tower (Cushionpaw Tower) where cats gather to be creative.

Gillian Finks, founder and main creative driver for the GANTOB reenactment, did not have much experience in art. She learnt on the job, writing and drawing her way up the tower from the black room, through the blue and green rooms to the white room, a metaphor for self actualisation. The story is told in the magnum opus GANTOB’s 25 Paintings, with the input of dozens of contributors.

Here is one of her early drawings (water colour pencils on paper). The papier-mâché head of Maurizio Cattelan (from an episode of BBC4’s art safari) is relatively well realised. The cat is art naïf, to put it kindly. The gold toilets and taped banana are further Cattelan references, simply realised. The Cubist cat a nod to Picasso’s blue period. The framed banana is a throw back to the stencilled art of Thomas Baumgärtel, as commonly encountered on the outside walls of art galleries across Europe in the 1990s.

Some of the chess pieces, useless as they are all blue, are symbols of other features from the GANTOBverse.

Gillian Finks was not entirely happy with this picture, particularly the cat. In her papers there is a rather starker version, painted in gouache on paper. The cat still has a slightly gnarly/ crumpled appearance. Finks was getting to grips with the new paint, with a turquoise rather than blue background to the Picasso tribute. This was not used in the book.

I am delighted to say, however, that we have now had a reenactment of this scene, sorting out the cat and the chess pieces. We can now see the kelpie inspired knight and the feline bishop. The light tortoiseshell cat takes the starring role. This, I am told, is acrylic paint on stretched canvas. The artist is keeping the piece for private display.

If you would like to reenact art from the GANTOB project please get in touch. Submissions will be collated on the reenactments page.

Maureen Katz, 7 March 2026