About artwork:
King Priest Sir Upsetter depicts King Tubby, Ghetto Priest, Sir Geoff Palmer and Lee “Scratch” Perry aka The Upsetter.
The work was made in response to a commission by Historic Environment Scotland to “development an artistic response to the relationship between the British Empire and slave derived wealth in Scotland’s archaeological sites.”
Fagen’s work shows 4 individuals with Jamaican heritage who have been an enormous inspiration to him. Ghetto Priest, King Tubby and Lee “Scratch” Perry aka The Upsetter for their music and creative attitude. And Sir Geoff Palmer for his professional inspiration as a researcher and academic, as well as his human rights work.
Fagen has been fortunate enough to have worked and collaborated with two of these mighty people.
Ghetto Priest provides the vocals on Fagen’s version of Robert Burns’s song The Slave’s Lament which wasfirst published in 1792.
Sir Geoff Palmer has done public talks with Fagen about Scotland and its connection to the transatlantic slave trade and in 2023 Fagen completed a commission to make an audio video portrait of Sir Geoff for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery which was acquired for the National Gallery of Scotland collection.
Fagen gives credit to photographer Adrian Boot for allowing him to work creatively with his original photographs of King Tubby and Lee “Scratch” Perry for this work. The images of Sir Geoff Palmer and Ghetto Priest were worked on creatively by Fagen from his own original photographs.