..... was an exhibition at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry and the Pentonville Gallery, London in 1984. 'Tricks' refers to Yeadon's use of disparate painting conventions, as a metaphor on pluralism, on contradictions, lies, manipulations, follies, alluding to a use of art history as a game, the tricks of politics, ideology and society. 'Tricks' has also a sexual reference; looking back on old loves, the nostalgia of past encounters. The exhibition consisted of 27 large canvases, which included the 'history paintings', the 'Beach Party' and the 'Deluge', the triptych 'Democratic Circus', 'Suicide Triptych' and the 7 panels of 'Old Tricks / A Political Archaeology. The theme is generally of human folly, specifically - the Falklands war, nuclear weapons, inner city squalor, racism, drug abuse and unemployment, employing scenes of vulnerability, homosexuality and sado-masochistic rituals based on pornography. 1981 - 1984

"Contradictions abound in John Yeadon's work which is a festival of pleasure and enjoyment, of excess and overstatement, grotesque yet attractive, as sensitive as it is gross. The large canvases, stretching from ceiling to floor, demand attention and response - art produced for effect and involvement rather than ownership... Strangely, amid all the frenetic activity, the startling scenes and graphic imagery, there is a tender concern for vulnerability. In one painting a naked (black) man crouches on top of a television set, the modern purveyor of propaganda, entertainment and information - in this instance a springboard for escape and release. A moving, caring image and one which hints that the roots of change exist within society." Emmanuel Cooper, Tribune, March 1984.

"Art or pornography is the question being begged by an exhibition by John Yeadon... the exhibition was attacked by a Tory councillor as being "overtly pornographic" and by the Coventry Evening Telegraph as "smut not art". The latter concluded in an editorial that "the power of censorship is a heavy burden to bear but the argument for it becomes all too plain when pictures such as these are displayed before even the most innocent eyes." The attendance figures of the gallery soared by 40%...Whether or not John Yeadon's paintings contain "explicit" sex, which they don't, is not the question. Whether John Yeadon's paintings "overtly" refer to his homosexuality is also not the issue. John Yeadon is asking us whether a society that elevates monetary value above human need and love, that perpetuates and encourages racism, sexism, fascism and war, is moral. Exploitation always feeds upon myth, ignorance and prejudice... John Yeadon utilises shock images as a visual catharsis. His paintings are not beautiful, nor are they ugly. Rather they exploit a grotesque realism because they act as a mirror to a monstrously deformed society." Jeff Sawtell, Morning Star, March 1984.