Class War Display Cabinet
A curio cabinet housing a class feudal system manifests throughout tiered shelving in the composite artwork Class War Display Cabinet (2024). Depicted is a cruel satire of an envisaged class war, one that's been designed, packaged and made affordable, emphasizing the irony of commodifying such a significant societal issue. The structure of this cabinet neatly contains each individual class, commemorating their idiosyncratic qualities in heirloom dinnerware and decorative keepsakes. With every shelf carefully filled by ornaments, figurines, and items of dining ware, all arranged to proudly reflect the full spectrum of the social classes alongside aspects of their associated imagery and its importance, the artwork exposes the sickeningly lopsided levels of inclusivity and exclusivity embedded within our society.
The uppermost shelf provides a glimpse into the world of royalty and the aristocracy, where inherited landowners gather in their grand stately homes. The figures displayed on this shelf reflect their fair, porcelain-like skin and their love for cosplay, fox hunting, and hosting elegant tea parties. Adorned with gold-rimmed plates showcasing their royal crests and embellished with ballerinas, aristocrats, and ladies in exquisite ballgowns, this top-tier shelf highlights both the nobility and ostentation of the upper classes.
Squarely in the middle sits a casserole dish bearing a Waitrose supermarket logo and a plate emblazoned with an image of the Land Rover Discovery encircled by repeated National Trust motifs. Such imagery serves as a suitable metaphor for conveying the aspirations of an upwardly mobile and environmentally conscious class of bourgeoisie. The ornaments adorning this shelf—a symphony of beige, clad in tweed and plaid—mirrors the comfortably well-heeled filling their leisure time with a range of conspicuously bland activities such as golfing, motorcycling or acquiring conservatories.
As one moves further down the classes, the shelves grow more crowded and the imagery more violent as scenes of desperation and conflict become rife. The upper tiers are spared the conflict and wars below them, the stratification of society ensuring their continued protection.
The lower shelf is overpopulated by cliched representations of poverty, child labour, filth, industry, and exploitation—from an incongruously chubby and rosy-faced figure of a child chimney sweep to a sepia-hued plate bearing the image of a wizened old woman disposing of sewage along her cobblestoned street. Even relief is a double-edged sword here, as the only levity offered is a plate festooned with imagery of feckless snooker-playing dogs, itself another merciless punching down.
While space abounds on the upper shelves, the content assures us that movement between these levels is a transgression that very few make. Those in the lowest class are packed so densely, made to feel so small and insignificant, it is difficult to imagine them surviving, let alone thriving in these conditions. Here towers of stacked plates, those intended for daily use, utilitarian objects like their societal counterparts, meant to be subjected to the use and abuse of the household's (or country's) needs, loom over small figures, their stature representing their footing within broader society.
Throughout the piece, fictional characters from screen and stage allude to popularized embodiments of each class as Hyacinth Bucket and Vicki Pollard take their respective places on their corresponding shelves. The delicate finery of the Fortnum and Mason bone-China teacups are counterbalanced by the clumpy utilitarian functionality implied by the Sports Direct mug situated on a lower shelf. Tastefully accentuated with seasonal decorative sprigs plucked from snow-flecked evergreen conifers, the rustic appearance of this display cabinet — being both distressed and shabby-chic — firmly aspires to an all-too-common middle-class aesthetic widely familiar in homes across the United Kingdom and worldwide.
The artwork serves as a poignant reminder that the most brutal conflicts in history did not take place on the distant battlegrounds of foreign nations, but rather they unfolded on our own soil, within the display cabinets situated in the homes of the proletariat and the burgeoning bourgeoisie, in a conflict re-enacted by the pitiful ornaments and figurines that serve only to denote their owners' class. Locked in this curious cabinet, we're reminded how we are all bound to the structures of society, our fates and ambitions sealed by those just a shelf above.
A curio cabinet housing a class feudal system manifests throughout tiered shelving in the composite artwork Class War Display Cabinet (2024). Depicted is a cruel satire of an envisaged class war, one that's been designed, packaged and made affordable, emphasizing the irony of commodifying such a significant societal issue. The structure of this cabinet neatly contains each individual class, commemorating their idiosyncratic qualities in heirloom dinnerware and decorative keepsakes. With every shelf carefully filled by ornaments, figurines, and items of dining ware, all arranged to proudly reflect the full spectrum of the social classes alongside aspects of their associated imagery and its importance, the artwork exposes the sickeningly lopsided levels of inclusivity and exclusivity embedded within our society.
The uppermost shelf provides a glimpse into the world of royalty and the aristocracy, where inherited landowners gather in their grand stately homes. The figures displayed on this shelf reflect their fair, porcelain-like skin and their love for cosplay, fox hunting, and hosting elegant tea parties. Adorned with gold-rimmed plates showcasing their royal crests and embellished with ballerinas, aristocrats, and ladies in exquisite ballgowns, this top-tier shelf highlights both the nobility and ostentation of the upper classes.
Squarely in the middle sits a casserole dish bearing a Waitrose supermarket logo and a plate emblazoned with an image of the Land Rover Discovery encircled by repeated National Trust motifs. Such imagery serves as a suitable metaphor for conveying the aspirations of an upwardly mobile and environmentally conscious class of bourgeoisie. The ornaments adorning this shelf—a symphony of beige, clad in tweed and plaid—mirrors the comfortably well-heeled filling their leisure time with a range of conspicuously bland activities such as golfing, motorcycling or acquiring conservatories.
As one moves further down the classes, the shelves grow more crowded and the imagery more violent as scenes of desperation and conflict become rife. The upper tiers are spared the conflict and wars below them, the stratification of society ensuring their continued protection.
The lower shelf is overpopulated by cliched representations of poverty, child labour, filth, industry, and exploitation—from an incongruously chubby and rosy-faced figure of a child chimney sweep to a sepia-hued plate bearing the image of a wizened old woman disposing of sewage along her cobblestoned street. Even relief is a double-edged sword here, as the only levity offered is a plate festooned with imagery of feckless snooker-playing dogs, itself another merciless punching down.
While space abounds on the upper shelves, the content assures us that movement between these levels is a transgression that very few make. Those in the lowest class are packed so densely, made to feel so small and insignificant, it is difficult to imagine them surviving, let alone thriving in these conditions. Here towers of stacked plates, those intended for daily use, utilitarian objects like their societal counterparts, meant to be subjected to the use and abuse of the household's (or country's) needs, loom over small figures, their stature representing their footing within broader society.
Throughout the piece, fictional characters from screen and stage allude to popularized embodiments of each class as Hyacinth Bucket and Vicki Pollard take their respective places on their corresponding shelves. The delicate finery of the Fortnum and Mason bone-China teacups are counterbalanced by the clumpy utilitarian functionality implied by the Sports Direct mug situated on a lower shelf. Tastefully accentuated with seasonal decorative sprigs plucked from snow-flecked evergreen conifers, the rustic appearance of this display cabinet — being both distressed and shabby-chic — firmly aspires to an all-too-common middle-class aesthetic widely familiar in homes across the United Kingdom and worldwide.
The artwork serves as a poignant reminder that the most brutal conflicts in history did not take place on the distant battlegrounds of foreign nations, but rather they unfolded on our own soil, within the display cabinets situated in the homes of the proletariat and the burgeoning bourgeoisie, in a conflict re-enacted by the pitiful ornaments and figurines that serve only to denote their owners' class. Locked in this curious cabinet, we're reminded how we are all bound to the structures of society, our fates and ambitions sealed by those just a shelf above.
A curio cabinet housing a class feudal system manifests throughout tiered shelving in the composite artwork Class War Display Cabinet (2024). Depicted is a cruel satire of an envisaged class war, one that's been designed, packaged and made affordable, emphasizing the irony of commodifying such a significant societal issue. The structure of this cabinet neatly contains each individual class, commemorating their idiosyncratic qualities in heirloom dinnerware and decorative keepsakes. With every shelf carefully filled by ornaments, figurines, and items of dining ware, all arranged to proudly reflect the full spectrum of the social classes alongside aspects of their associated imagery and its importance, the artwork exposes the sickeningly lopsided levels of inclusivity and exclusivity embedded within our society.
The uppermost shelf provides a glimpse into the world of royalty and the aristocracy, where inherited landowners gather in their grand stately homes. The figures displayed on this shelf reflect their fair, porcelain-like skin and their love for cosplay, fox hunting, and hosting elegant tea parties. Adorned with gold-rimmed plates showcasing their royal crests and embellished with ballerinas, aristocrats, and ladies in exquisite ballgowns, this top-tier shelf highlights both the nobility and ostentation of the upper classes.
Squarely in the middle sits a casserole dish bearing a Waitrose supermarket logo and a plate emblazoned with an image of the Land Rover Discovery encircled by repeated National Trust motifs. Such imagery serves as a suitable metaphor for conveying the aspirations of an upwardly mobile and environmentally conscious class of bourgeoisie. The ornaments adorning this shelf—a symphony of beige, clad in tweed and plaid—mirrors the comfortably well-heeled filling their leisure time with a range of conspicuously bland activities such as golfing, motorcycling or acquiring conservatories.
As one moves further down the classes, the shelves grow more crowded and the imagery more violent as scenes of desperation and conflict become rife. The upper tiers are spared the conflict and wars below them, the stratification of society ensuring their continued protection.
The lower shelf is overpopulated by cliched representations of poverty, child labour, filth, industry, and exploitation—from an incongruously chubby and rosy-faced figure of a child chimney sweep to a sepia-hued plate bearing the image of a wizened old woman disposing of sewage along her cobblestoned street. Even relief is a double-edged sword here, as the only levity offered is a plate festooned with imagery of feckless snooker-playing dogs, itself another merciless punching down.
While space abounds on the upper shelves, the content assures us that movement between these levels is a transgression that very few make. Those in the lowest class are packed so densely, made to feel so small and insignificant, it is difficult to imagine them surviving, let alone thriving in these conditions. Here towers of stacked plates, those intended for daily use, utilitarian objects like their societal counterparts, meant to be subjected to the use and abuse of the household's (or country's) needs, loom over small figures, their stature representing their footing within broader society.
Throughout the piece, fictional characters from screen and stage allude to popularized embodiments of each class as Hyacinth Bucket and Vicki Pollard take their respective places on their corresponding shelves. The delicate finery of the Fortnum and Mason bone-China teacups are counterbalanced by the clumpy utilitarian functionality implied by the Sports Direct mug situated on a lower shelf. Tastefully accentuated with seasonal decorative sprigs plucked from snow-flecked evergreen conifers, the rustic appearance of this display cabinet — being both distressed and shabby-chic — firmly aspires to an all-too-common middle-class aesthetic widely familiar in homes across the United Kingdom and worldwide.
The artwork serves as a poignant reminder that the most brutal conflicts in history did not take place on the distant battlegrounds of foreign nations, but rather they unfolded on our own soil, within the display cabinets situated in the homes of the proletariat and the burgeoning bourgeoisie, in a conflict re-enacted by the pitiful ornaments and figurines that serve only to denote their owners' class. Locked in this curious cabinet, we're reminded how we are all bound to the structures of society, our fates and ambitions sealed by those just a shelf above.
