The Brexit vote was a vote to go back. But back to what? Britain no longer has an empire, it no longer rules the waves. We are lead by a Prime Minister who voted to remain and now tries to lead us out. Are we heading to a future where we will all travel second class?
This is the thought that was used in influencing my latest work in collaboration with Flying Leaps. "Second Class" is making it's way around the street of the UK and is also available for purchase via Flying Leaps.
Below I've included an article written by Adrian Burnham that describes the work far better than I can write about the collaboration.
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When it comes to committing graphic high treason the artist Heath Kane is a repeat offender. His Rich Enough To Be Batman (2014 – 2017) prints exist in a number of glorious versions: Gold and Pink, Yellow and Aqua, Orange and Blue... What they all share is the classic bank note Queen Elizabeth II portrait (based on a photograph by Bank of England in house photographer Don Ford circa 1985-6). In Kane’s rendition, however, our dear Liz is wearing Batman’s iconic cowl.
For Kane stamping the caped crusaders mask in silhouette on Her Maj. “raises questions about wealth and social justice.” If you had royal level wealth would you use it fight crime and protect the vulnerable? Or just be content to hole up and get comfy in your counting house?
When I saw a version pasted up opposite Spitalfields Market, London E1, the Queen’s partly obscured face had endured further tags and daubings, she even seemed to have acquired a bindi which seems about right given the preponderance of Bengalis living or working in the neighbourhood.
The artist first got the idea for the Rich Enough To Be Batman series reading the Sunday Times Rich List. This ranks by net wealth the thousand richest people or families in the UK. When first published in 1989 the Queen was number one but she’s since slipped down the table.
Kane wondered ‘what’s the purpose of such lists?’ Is it just to give the hoi-polloi an opportunity to admire, celebrate the fortunes of the super rich. Or rub peoples’ noses in it after a decade of austerity? Less loftily, studying the variations of this work, I couldn’t help thinking how cute the Queen looked in her gimpy garb. Not as cute as Michelle Pfeiffer obviously but, you know.
Kane says he wants his work to engender a ‘smile in the mind’ of viewers but there’s always a sincere attempt to ‘tell stories’ that relate to wider social issues. A brilliant example of this can be found in a recent print: Second Class (2018).
In Second Class the image of the Queen again originated from an official source: an old Canadian postage stamp. But rather than being lent superhero status – which is how some people read the earlier work! – I’m afraid this time Liz has the look of that lady in the back row at the Rhinoceros Exhibition. But instead of bearing a blackened visage as in the 18th century painting by Pietro Longhi the Queen’s cryptic smile has been replaced, blotted out, by a somewhat grubby lipstick red rendition of Theresa May’s infamous calamity gurn.
Kane, of course, knows it’s another cracker. For a start, displayed in the street, you can’t go wrong with a giant stamp design. It’s a surreal sight, anomalous, amusing. The huge perforated frame marks the piece out visually. And, never mind a smile in the mind, I grinned from ear to ear when I first saw it. The artist offered a little more of his thinking behind Second Class.
“The Brexit vote was a vote to go back. But back to what? Britain no longer has an empire, it no longer rules the waves. We are lead by a Prime Minister who voted to remain and now tries to lead us out. Are we heading to a future where we will all travel second class?”
So there are subtle elements to the work that make it more than a one-liner. The stamp’s original value equates to the percentage of people in the UK who voted to leave the EU in 2016. The aforementioned overall grubbiness could allude to what a sordid operation Brexit has proved to be in the hands of Tory ‘negotiators’. And that moiré effect in the print reproduction lends the image a tellingly cheap, brittle, almost nostalgic connotation. Hmmm.
Chatting with Kane we realised that we’d both come up with the idea of an exhibition featuring portraits inspired by the monarch. We’ve been beaten to it, of course. There was an exhibition of alternative portraits inspired by Queen Elizabeth II curated by Ben Moore in 2016 to coincide with Her Majesty’s 90th.
With any luck you’ll catch a glimpse of Kane’s Second Class on the streets and elsewhere very soon. You can also see the artist’s latest works in the show Portrait of Heroes 24th March to 7th April at Atom Gallery, London N16.