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Installation (incl developments) 

For the final installation, I wanted there to be a shop like appearance with the products. I didn't expect to have as many walls however it really opens up the space. I didn't want there to be a tacky appearance to the installation with prices and shop signs. However, it led me to consider if my QR code was enough on its own or whether it needed something to highlight its importance within the project to the viewer. I feel the framing of the QR code on the single wall attracts the viewer as a framed image almost highlights its importance-- as if it were finalised.

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QR Code. 

Because the website is one of the project's final developments, I wanted to have it displayed at the degree show and for presentations. However, I would not be able to leave a laptop sitting unattended for the degree show. As a result, I've opted to display a QR code which allows everyone to access the website on their phones. Since lockdown QR codes have become widely used and most people will now have encountered one due to covid. This also means that people can access the work from their own phones and even take it away with them. This QR code makes the website more accessible rather than having the website displayed on a computer.

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Degree Show Layout- Plan - Idea 1

For the degree show (creative enquiry) i'll need two walls and two plinths. On one wall i'll have two tote bags hanging and display cards and on the other my A1 work. On one of the plinths, I'll have the rest of the commodities which include mugs and postcards and on the second plinth possibly a laptop displaying the website. I want the work to be displayed with a shoplike appearance running with the concept of capitalism and commodities

Edit: the space I was given.

Now that we have been allocated our spaces I have had to rethink the layout of my project. I now have four walls instead of two and have one long plinth. Like the original plan, I will have my A1 piece on one wall and two tote bags on another. However, I will now have all the merch sitting on one long plinth almost displayed like a shop. As I can't have a laptop sitting unwatched I will create a QR code for the website which means everyone can access the work from their phones. This can go on one of the four walls.

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Website- Final. 

Starting the website at the beginning of 2022 has been the most tedious part of the project. As I had not worked with Wix before I had to quickly learn how to work Wix and put the website together. As I developed merchandise and designs for the products I could then begin to add sections to the website.

I split the merchandise into three sections mugs, clothes and accessories.

Within the website there is juxtaposition. The website itself acts as an advocate for capitalism encouraging the buying and selling of products. It even says 'become a capitalist enthusiast today' for a discounted price.

I had decided earlier in the project that I would create a website. This decision was influenced by the lockdown over Christmas which resulted in working from home until mid-January. The concept surrounding commodifying the negative impact of capitalism (the stress of achievement) contradicts the work, giving the money back to the capitalist organisations. The commodities that I had designed were purchased from capitalist organisations such as Moonpig and Optimal print which sell mass amounts of products for cheaper prices. Using these websites in turn meant using capitalism to protest capitalism. Creating the website to sell these commodities then allows me to make my money back, becoming a small cog in a large machine. As for the product designs, repetitive use of text I believe can have a powerful impact. This was then paired with current affairs and political scandals in the UK and placed on tourist tat such as tote bags, mugs, cards, and t-shirts. Artist Rachel Maclean was very influential throughout my process as she incorporates British politics in her own works pocking fun at the larger powers. Other influential artists include Ai Weiwei with his creative and brave approach to political art. In an Instagram live with Albertina Museum Weiwei stated ‘China is my ready-made’ which resonated with me and British politics. If I were to explore this concept further, I would expand my website and merchandise on a larger scale, commodifying scandals in British politics and the suffering experienced at the hands of Capitalism. This project has allowed me to broaden my understanding of the process behind production within a capitalist setting and view the project from the capitalists’ perspective through the means of production.

The capitalists will sell us the rope with which to hang them - attributed to Lenin

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Final Developed Image 

For this developed collage, I wanted to incorporate the previous development works into one. Influenced by Hannah Hoch I want the work to tell a political story of greed in Britain.

The union jack was an important aspect because of its connotations and relations to Britain's past. However, I didn't want it to consume the whole image with a bright union jack so it sits slightly faded and darkened in the back. As much as the work is about the lack of sharing between those in power and the top 1% it also contains some self-reflection. The arms within the image are my own, burning the money and controlling the dummy which asks the question; how much of the suffering is enforced and how much is self-inflicted.

The media have a way of convincing you that you are spending your money wrong, that you aren't working enough hours or investing your money wisely. This is a way of pushing the blame onto everyone except those who are in charge.

I wanted there to be a tourist type feel to the image. Behind the scenes, Britain is not as sharing as it would have u believe and now many of its citizens are struggling more than ever

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Cards, postcards, keychains. 

When I had first created the cards in my earlier developments I was influenced by the card my work send me during the holidays. I work for Teleperformance a billion-dollar company that sends me Christmas, easter and birthday cards. For me, this felt like a slap in the face considering they won't pay their staff more than they have to.

The cards laugh in the face of working-class people who will never share in the wealth of their employers. We Will Not Share With You on the front of the card and the postcard is the cherry on the top as it adds to the ignorant tone of the cards.

Postcards

Chains

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Mugs.

Mugs are the perfect gift for family and friends. They often carry messages and be carried about between work, home and other areas of life. When I decided on merchandise for this project, mugs was one of the first products I considered due to their popularity. This project has allowed me to create work from the perspective of a capitalist and how they would try and make a profit.

I also feel that of all the products the designs look best on the mugs.

The British drink tea instead of coffee because the import of tea brought in more power and control to the British Empire during the 1700s. Since then, Brits have enjoyed relishing in the benefits and taste of the beverage. Now, Brits drink 100 million cups of tea everyday, totalling almost 36 billion cups per year.

There is also its warmth which is a great benefit in a climate such as the UK. But mostly drinking tea is a part of British culture. It is sewn into our cultural identity as an iconic part of being British. If you��re looking to experience our tea drinking culture to the fullest, we recommend indulging in a spot of afternoon tea.

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Tote Bags. 

Tote bags are considered one of the most popular bags especially among shoppers. With millions sold every year tote bags are known for their sturdiness, strong cloth to enable them to perform any task given to them. Tote bags are so popular because they can be used for any occasion,store items for a trip, for everyday use, and more.

Not only does a quality bag give any wardrobe a luxe upgrade, but it’s also ultimately a more sustainable purchase since you can wear it for years to come. While designer bags come in all sorts of styles—including buzzy trend-driven pieces like the micro bag—arguably the most versatile and functional option is the tote bag.

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Clothes. 

We live in a world of Fast Fashion — that means inexpensive clothing are produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends. And trends change nearly every day. So the 40 million garment factory workers have to work under immense pressure to speed up production time at reduced costs and cut environmental corners in the name of profit.

Today we purchase 80 billion pieces of new clothing each year which is 400% more than what we consumed just 20 years ago. Apparently, 1 in 6 people in the world works in a fashion-related job, and 80 per cent of the labour force throughout the supply chain are women. It is the most manual labour-intensive industry.

Cotton represents 50% of total fiber used to make clothing — more than 90% of which is genetically modified, using vast amounts of water, chemicals, pesticides and insecticides. These toxic wastes and complex chemicals contaminate the local ecosystem, soil, agricultural produce, ground water and often have degenerative mental and physical health implications.

On a global scale, these behaviors are deeply rooted in our economy of consumer capitalism — where numbers drive results — large corporations consistently aim for higher profit margins, quarter over quarter, compared to their competitors.

To reap the biggest benefits, these western brands go to countries like Bangladesh and Cambodia, where there are no collective rights, no trade unions, no pensions, no maternity benefits and very low minimum wage.

4 millions garment factory workers, over 85% of them women, are in Bangladesh working at a minimum wage of less than $3 per day — lowest wage paid anywhere in the world. Most of them work for long strenuous hours under poverty wages, factory disasters and suffer violent treatments from employers, sometimes even beaten to death when raising concerns over poor working conditions. Often these women get a chance to see their kids only once or twice in a year, who usually are raised by friends or relatives outside the city.

If you look closely, apparel prices have deflated over the years, primarily due to cheap labor and increased competition. The idea of buying more and more comforts at cheaper prices is actually making us poorer, while the basic amenities such as housing, education and health care are increasingly getting less and less affordable. The more we learn about the trading practices of these high-end fashion industries and their tenacious influence on our consumer habits through their ad campaigns and social media outreach, the more we understand how they manipulate us and undermine our values.

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24hr Freedom Pass- Boris- Current Event Development

I created this work in reaction the Boris taking credit for the 24-hour bus pass.

Boris Johnson has taken credit for introducing free bus passes for pensioners after being told elderly people are using them to keep warm.

In an interview on ITV's Good Morning Britain, the prime minister was told of a 77-year-old pensioner who rode the bus because she could not afford heating.

"She gets up early in the morning to use her Freedom bus pass to stay on buses all day to avoid using energy at home. What else should Elise cut back on?"

The prime minister replied: “Just to remind you that the 24-hour freedom bus pass was something that I introduced.”

Boris once again proves a lack of empathy for those suffering at the hands of capitalism. As people in the UK suffer due to the cost of living crisis those at the top remain unaffected.

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Cold War Steve 

Cold War Steve is the nom de plume of Christopher Spencer, a British collage artist and satirist. He is the creator of the Twitter feed @Coldwar_Steve. His work typically depicts a grim, dystopian location in England populated by British media figures, celebrities, and politicians, usually with Eastenders actor Steve McFadden (in character as Phil Mitchel) looking on in disgust. His work has been described as having "captured the mood of Brexit Britain" and has been likened to that of earlier British political satirists Hogarth and Gillray.  As of September 2021, his Twitter account has over 345,000 followers

McFadden's Cold War (the original title of the page) first appeared on Twitter in March 2016. As the title suggested, the work initially concentrated on the Cold War era, inserting Steve McFadden into photographs from the period often featuring Ronald Reagan or Mikhail Gorbachev. The EU referendum in June 2016 was a watershed in his career and led to his work taking on a more surreal tone. Speaking in December 2018 he said "rather than dealing with it as I've done in the past – which would have been drink or drugs or whatever – I channelled it more into my art. I incorporated other characters, so it's slowly become more satirical and political." The work expanded to include politicians such as Theresa May, Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un in incongruous settings such as a run-down British working men's club or a derelict flytipping site alongside British celebrities such as Noel Edmonds, Cliff Richard, Danny Dyer or Cilla Black. Steve McFadden is the one constant in his montages

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Westminster- Photoshop- Things aren't always Black and White- Deveopment. 

The truth behind the picture. Britain tries to paint this picture of a developed, progressive and giving culture however the reality is there is a lot of inequality and division within Britain.

The recent rise in wages for politicians as the cost of living increases is an example of this inequality. Not only has Britain failed to share within its own culture but it doesn't issue to share without nations as it prepares to leave the EU.

There is a stand-alone nature that Britain has which only benefits those at the top. This image was created to highlight the truth behind the decision making in the UK parliament and who really benefits from the decisions that are made there.

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Passport- British Identity- Brexit- Development. 

The first major study since Brexit of UK citizens living in the EU has revealed its profound impact on their lives, with many expressing serious concerns over their loss of free movement and voting rights – and a very different perception of Britain.

The survey, of 1,328 British nationals across the continent, showed that if “the public narrative suggests Brexit is done and dusted, it has brought deep transformations to the lives of British citizens in the EU and EEA”, the study’s co-lead, Michaela Benson, said.

“The long tail of Brexit is evident in its continuing impacts both on the way they live their lives, and in its lasting significance for their sense of identity and belonging,” said Benson, a sociology professor at Lancaster University.

The survey, conducted between December 2021 and January 2022, a year after the end of the Brexit transition period, and part of a wider project by Lancaster and Birmingham universities, found 59% of respondents had lived in their country of residence for at least five years and most intended to stay.

Brexit, and the British government’s handling of the Covid pandemic, strongly affected 80% of respondents’ feelings towards the UK, with responses including “deep shame”, “disappointment”, “a shit show”, “embarrassed to be British”, “shambolic”, and “like watching a house on fire”.

Just over 30% still felt very or extremely emotionally attached to the UK, compared with 75% who said they felt a very or extreme emotional attachment to the EU, and 59% who felt the same in relation to their country of residence.

On a Top...

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Britain is my readymade. 

In an Instagram Live with Ai Wei Wei who spoke to the Albertina Museum Wei Wei spoke about his practice. Wei Wei who is known for his criticism of china stated 'China is my readymade'. I found this comment particularly inspiring as this related to my own practice as for me Britain is my readymade.

Wei Wei also stated 'I am looking for trouble' in relation to his work as political art can ofte have a backlash.

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Ross Sinclair- Artist 

Ross Sinclair is an artist, writer and musician who is a Professor of Contemporary Art Practice within the School of Fine Art at The Glasgow School of Art. He is best known for his ‘Real Life’ research project initiated when he had the words REAL LIFE tattooed in black ink across his back, at Terry’s Tattoo parlour in Glasgow, in 1994.

Sinclair completed a PhD by Published Work in 2016 where he interrogated and articulated the innovative nature of the Real Life project, unusual in its scale and duration, defining the contribution to contemporary art practice across the fields of sculpture, painting, performance, installation, critical writing and music. Drawing on these multi-disciplinary methodologies Sinclair maps out the forms, materials and processes activated over almost 25 Years of Real Life Projects, that often combine unusual and unorthodox approaches challenging conventional modes of exhibition practice, enabling new means of engagement with the viewer. The multi part thesis submitted claims these routes as an autonomous, artist initiated project, connecting with the public at a dynamic intersection of ideas, context, performance and art-practice.

Sinclair’s Real Life Project is set in a critical framework of contested paradigms of Everyday Life and The Real and acknowledges the influence of key critical thinkers over the quarter century of its development from Barthes, Baudrillard and De Certeau, through Bourriaud, Bishop and Kester and more recently in Harman, Mark Fisher and Paul O’Neill amongst many others. The project has been punctuated by the exploration of individual and collective relationships with Real Life particularly viewed through contemporary paradigms constructing society such as: Democracy, Utopia, Justice, Capitalism, Geography and History, the Church, the Bank, the State, while in parallel addressing the role of the tattooed artist himself. These monolithic pillars of the architecture of contemporary living are examined through the repeated interrogation of context, materials and audience engagement, testing the limits of the utility and agency of the contemporary art exhibition itself.

The ‘Real Life Project’ has been disseminated across a range of exhibition and publication contexts, exhibited extensively in public and private spaces, museums and galleries in the UK, Europe, USA, Canada, China, Iceland, South Korea, Japan and Australia in 50 solo and 150 group exhibitions documented by a series of solo monograph publications and more than 50 group publications.

Sinclair is a member of the AHRC Peer Review College, Journal of Visual Art Practice Peer Review, Austrian Science and Art Funds Peak/FWF. He has recently been External Examiner at UCL: Slade School of Art, Graduate Sculpture, London, 2015-18, MFA: Art, Society & Publics, DJCAD, University of Dundee, 2016-18 and in 2019 begins as External Examiner at Royal College of Art; Contemporary Art Practice. He has recently been elected an Academician of the Royal Scottish Academy of Artists and Architects.

This research addresses many of the GSA Strategic Themes: Contemporary Art and Curating (CAC) Architecture, Urbanism and the Public Sphere (APS) Education in Art, Design and Architecture (EADA) Material Culture (MC). Sinclair is an active member of the Reading Landscape Research Group.

In 2018 Sinclair curated an exhibition at QPRC in Glasgow: Artists who make Music/Musicians who make Art featuring over 100 artists including 5 Turner Prize winners alongside a host of other influential and significant artists and musicians where he sought to address the question of the locus of creativity in relation to the symbiotic but distinct endeavours of art production and music making. This project was supported by Creative Scotland and generated many reviews and media attention. He is currently developing another version of this project for a larger venue in 2020.

In 2017 Sinclair mounted a major solo exhibition at Shanghai Himalayas museum Real Life is Dead/Long Live Real Life 1994-2017 curated by Cooper Gallery University of Dundee and additionally undertook a residency working with participants to developing and staging a performance supported by British Council, Creative Scotland and the Scottish and UK Governments. This project brought together many heterogeneous works under the Real Life umbrella in order to raise questions on the construction growth and identity of a discrete art practice developing over 2 decades and how this can be articulated in relation to audience. In late 2017 Sinclair was invited by National Galleries of Scotland /Inverness Museum to make a contemporary response to the Landseer painting, Monarch of the Glen exhibited side by side with this iconic and divisive Scottish Icon testing received paradigms of Scottish identity.. 

In spring 2016 Sinclair was visiting fellow at St Johns College, Oxford University, where he undertook a 3 month artist in residence as part of his fellowship alongside various exhibition and public events.

In 2014/15 Sinclair was commissioned to re-create his 1996 performance installation ‘Real Life Rocky Mountain’ at The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh as part of the nationwide ‘Generation: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland’, project. In 2015/18 he was part of an exhibition of artists from GSA at Simone de Souza Gallery in Detroit and also that year was commissioned by UK Parliament, to contribute to a year-long project in Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster celebrating the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta.

Sinclair has also published many essays and texts in books, journals and magazines and has written extensively on the generation of Glasgow artists emerging from the 1990’s onwards, recently contributing an essay on (2010 Turner Prize winner) Susan Phillipsz: Socialism in Her Heart, to the Artangel/Konig monograph ‘Ten Works (The Work)’, 2014 and Sinclair also had 2 essays featured in the recent ‘Generation Reader’ 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland (National Galleries) published to mark this important exhibition in 2014.

A Parallel aspect of Sinclair’s art practice is reflected in a significant number of works and texts he has made over the past 20 years that implicitly or explicitly have addressed Scottish cultural identity, discussing the complexity of these influencing factors and how they can be understood and interrogated in contemporaneous, dynamic ways, in public, appealing to a diverse cross-section of audience. An example of this work was seen in 2015/16 at GOMA Glasgow where his large scale neon installation, ‘We Love Real Life Scotland’ was displayed on the 18th Century portico of the Gallery of Modern Art building on Queen St as part of the exhibition, ‘Devils in the Making, GSA and the Collection��. From a starting point in the 1980’s as a founding member of one of Glasgow’s most popular indie bands, The Soup Dragons, Sinclair has always utilised music throughout his practice and in 2015 released a gatefold vinyl album documenting a 3 year project with Collective (Edinburgh) 20 Years of Real Life: Free Instruments for Teenagers where he worked with young people developing, recording and releasing music made on instruments given away for free during his exhibition. This ‘vinyl publication’ was launched in Dec. 2015 at a live music event at the City Dome on Calton Hill. He has previously released records, ‘Real Life Parledonia’, Edinburgh Art Festival, 2013, and cd’s, ‘I tried to Give Up Drinking With Guitars instead of God’, The Duchy 2013, and ‘The Real Life Rock Opera’, The Travelling Gallery, 2004.

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Carey Young- Artist 

Carey Young developed her artistic practice from a cross-fertilization of disciplines including law, business, politics and science. The tools and language of these different fields act as material for her installations, performances, text works and photographs, as well as for videos in which absurd relationships develop between the performer or subjects, and the rhetoric of political, commercial or legal discourse. Recently, she has explored relations between law, gender and the cinematic, most notably with the video installation Palais de Justice (2017), in which the artist surreptitiously filmed female judges working at the main courthouse of Belgium.

Young’s work has been exhibited widely, including solo shows at Kunsthal Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark (2020), La Loge, Brussels (2019), Towner Art Gallery (2019), Dallas Museum of Art (2017), Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich (2013), The Power Plant, Toronto (2009), Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2009), Eastside Projects (Birmingham, 2009), MiMA (Middlesbrough, 2010), John Hansard Gallery (Southampton, 2001) and group shows at Kanal Centre Pompidou, Brussels (2018), Aspen Art Museum (2016), Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2015), Tate Liverpool (2014-15), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2012), New Museum, New York (2011), Tate Britain (2009–10), ICA (London, 2003), The Photographers’ Gallery (London, 1999) amongst many others. She has participated in numerous biennials, including Moscow (2013, 2007), Taipei (2010), Sharjah (2005), and Venice (2003). In 2023, Young will have a solo show at Modern Art Oxford.

Works in public collections include Tate Gallery, Centre Pompidou, Sharjah Art Foundation, Arts Council Collection and Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst. Two monographs on her work have been published: Subject to Contract, published by JRP | Ringier in 2013, and Carey Young: Incorporated, published by Film and Video Umbrella and John Hansard Gallery, 2001. Young is represented by Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.

Carey Young has had an Honorary Fellowship in the School of Law, Birkbeck, the University of London since 2013 and has given lectures at Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Cambridge and Oxford University. She is an Associate Professor in Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.

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The Union Jack 

The current flag, also known as the Union Jack or Union Flag, is a representation of this unification. It was adopted on January 1, 1801, and consists of a red cross for St George, the Patron of England, superimposed on the white cross of St. Patrick, the patron of Ireland.

'The Union Jack is also associated with ideals of pride and patriotism, democracy and tolerance, our poll found ‒ but although a good percentage of Scots are similarly inclined, more Scots than English or Welsh associate the flag with negative connotations such as racism and extremism.'- YouGov

The flag on balance receives less backing when it comes to associating it with a modern and diverse Britain, and when used in a 'modern sense', looks to be received best by the English public rather than Britain as a whole – for example, more English people that Welsh or Scottish associate the flag with the upcoming Olympics and 'Team GB', or pop music.- YouGov

For many ordinary British people, the Union Jack was almost toxic. At best, it felt like the flag of the monarch, not the people. At worst, it was the symbol of fascism. If you hung the Union Jack from your house it was assumed you were a far right-wing racist. "There ain't no black in the Union Jack," was the chant of jackbooted thugs. -The Atlantic