For the International 2002 Powers has created a new work, Waylon Saul, for the schoolyard of Pleasant Street Board School, comprising more than thirty painted panels hung across the walls of the school building. The work continues Powers’ practice of using the aesthetics of commercial sign writing – a visual language integral to the experience of the city, but often overlooked in its familiarity – to create narratives portraying the realities of contemporary urban life. In this instance, the site of the now disused primary schoolyard has inspired the story of Saul Goode which the artist describes as ‘the story of a schoolyard bully who finds himself in a showdown with the weakest kid in class. The weakling turns the tables and ultimately wins the day with the weapon of laughter’. Powers hopes that the story ‘serves as a useful meditation on the necessity of levity in overcoming the struggles in the schoolyard and around the world’. Sarah Glennie

Project Credits Courtesy the artist Commissioned by Henry Moore Foundation Contemporary Projects With thanks to: Deitch Projects, New York. The artist would like to thank Mike Levy, Dan Murphy and Peter at Always Sign, and Jeffrey Deitch, Elisabeth, Julia and Koji, for their continued advice and support.