For the Christmas Cracker at The Cass, I put up mostly the same pieces as at 4Cose, but had to choose a different display method in our studio; a completely different space from the grocery store. Instead, I was happy to explore the idea of a casual display that allowed the focus to be on the inexpensive, appropriated material I had used to paint consumerist logos and imagery seen on a daily basis.

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Above: Bob and Roberta Smith (Patrick Brill OBE) auctioning the records we made/created interventions on for charity.

With kitsch and the objects and ideas it represents in mind, I delved into its exploration in a variety of mediums and sizes. Apart from the instruction-based interactive pieces mentioned above, such as a presentation of an interactive snow globe and toy carousel on a plinth, I also explored ‘kitsch’ imagery via watercolour painting.

I chose a white wall and hung my pieces on fish-wire like clothes hanging on a clothes-string, because I did not want to frame the pieces and make them look ‘formal’ and ‘finished’.

My work is usually detailed and replete with imagery and painted on watercolour paper or over archival prints. However, I decided to break free from my typical style and instead, painted certain parts of brand logos and other elements I saw around me on found paper and cardboard pieces or packaging material. My display, too, was more casual than my usually-mounted and framed pieces. I stuck some small pieces to a wall at our art-school’s Christmas Cracker December show, and suspended others on fish-wire like a clothesline, unframed.