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About
My recent work deals with British cultural symbolism and the decay of the British working classes. “Chav” culture and its array of visual references lends itself to the very skin of each sculpture. In Pigs Palace, Rebellious British youth are embodied within ramshackle structures, creating a depiction of the bedrooms of working class teens. Low-income families unable to redecorate their home generate a static frame of optimistic parenthood, which later clashes with its hedonistic occupier. Rioting and loot-happy youth descend into time capsules of prepubescence, environments of infancy, a visual juxtaposition of the awkward pairing. Childlike naïveté is apparent throughout sullied pastel prints whilst its angry successor infiltrates throughout frustrated scribbles of one bored by its outdated environment. Posters, fantasies and teenage pin-ups are soiled by stunted expression articulated through scribbles, stickers and mindless graffiti. “Bling culture” is highlighted in Poor Peackockery, a collage showcasing the working class’ love affair of wealth, turning a sophisticated display of status into primitive costume, whilst Britian is Great, Great Britain focuses on the British Tabloid, and it’s melodramatic spin.
In the sculpture Pigs Palace especially, one is drawn to the mind of the inhabitant. Dated and clashing material is in close proximity to sexualized pin- ups and fantasy objects. Unicorns and fast cars epitomize daydreams of wealth and luxury, whilst the immediate surroundings are the very essence of poverty and despair. Burberry fabric is stretched skin-like over the structure, the uniform of football hooligans and the very gang culture pervading British housing estates, now synonymous with violence and hatred, as opposed to its luxurious and historic origin. Placed alongside African prints, Burberry becomes akin to primitive imagery and tribal symbolism. Henry VIII, Henri Rousseau and Matisse are placed alongside Justin Bieber and the latest Hollywood pin-ups, relegating high art and low culture to one and the same, ensuing an unabashed celebration of color and decoration. Wayne Rooney is elevated to a higher status than the monarchy- a juxtaposition of old and new England and a visual icon of hooligan culture. Here, monarchical figureheads represent a formidable past, and a sullied Union Jack provides a glimpse of the volatile now.
The very first shack-like sculptures (Betwixed, Nativs) were initially created in response to a 3000-mile road trip across the southwest of America, and in particular, the three Hopi mesas in Northern Arizona. On traveling through the reservations I became deeply moved by the architectural shapes and construction of the many abandoned homes, roadside shacks and market stalls, and began to draw mental similarities with the disparate culture of Native Americans and the modern British working classes. The visceral quality of these structures, the isolation and sense of abandonment motivated me to develop similar structural shapes, which later burgeoned into more complex visual metaphors. My own existence, split between two continents also serves as a point of tension and visual melting pot within both earlier and later works.
