Sarcasm, Aspirations & Superstitions
A large-scale photographic essay about the character of the UK, using found images sourced in books, magazines, newspapers and archives. These images sit in the marginalia of the media landscape, but in a new context, with time passed and against a turbulent present, they acquire new potency and depth. I want to re-stage them in a contemporary vernacular—placing them outdoors to be seen again, to weather again, to be vandalised, ignored, or removed. It’s not about nostalgia, but about asking: what informs this peculiar moment we find ourselves in? The images will be printed on PVC banners—the same material used by advertisers, property developers, shop owners and pub landlords declaring “under new management.” Having experimented with this material in the studio for the past year, I’m drawn to how it positions the work somewhere between advertising and painting, future proposal and forgotten moment.
Date: 2025
Medium: Digital prints on PVC with eyelets
Scale: 155 x221 cm
