We had nearly 100 years of British Democracy with universal suffrage. Now we are facing the probability that it may end in a few years, around about its centenary if Reform get in. They are odds on to do that. People compare our predicament to the Thirties in Germany and
Interviewer: Tommy Sissons There are few working-class characters on British television and in film, and even fewer played by actors from working-class backgrounds. Maxine Peake’s ability to channel her own class experience into characters who occupy a familiar (and often central) role in working-class communities, and the way that
Interviewer: Tommy Sissons Subculture diarist Jeanie Jean has spent the past few years immersed in Britain’s living youth cultures, documenting them from the inside as a participant. Her work captures the vitality, dynamism, and tenacity that characterise these underground communities, and demonstrates the ways in which young people today
Written by Tommy Sissons When architects Alison and Peter Smithson named the Poplar council estate they designed Robin Hood Gardens, they invoked the legendary Nottinghamshire outlaw as a symbol of the Welfare State: a system intended to redistribute wealth for the benefit of all. Completed in 1972, the estate emerged
Written by Tommy Sissons Jeanie and the White Boys have come bursting out of the gates. Since forming last year, they’ve released two singles, played Glastonbury (their second gig, no less), and toured across the UK. Emerging from the east London queer arts community and the south London punk
Tell us about 'Please welcome to the stage … Comrade Beyoncé': This body of work is quite straight-forward in its premise: I have dreamt up a world in which the pop diva Beyoncé is a revolutionary communist. Whereas in previous work I utilise the kitsch as a familiar (but
Written by Zhuzh the Yog. Stepping through the doors of the White House, Dagenham, takes you from the streets of the UK’s largest housing estate into a dreamlike installation by Romany artist and Turner Prize nominee Delaine Le Bas. Stranger in Silver, Walking on Air is an immersive experience:
I pray in the Miners' Cathedral, as the Horden cowboys ride outside. I sit in the lull between the Morning Vespers and Afternoon Recitals, when it is empty, as the organist smokes in the door frame. He is a gargoyle in a crisp white shirt, puffing smoke from his
Eva Dixon’s inaugural solo exhibition, SCORE! features a dynamic cast. The Ipswich football team, WWF wrestlers, sex workers, a lone diver. Appearing on collectible cards sourced by the artist, these characters appear in control. Though the cards name real individuals, they often read as archetypal, exaggerated ideals of hyper
Somewhere high up on a mountain north of Coniston the sons are murdering sheep. This is what the imagination tells us. That’s what the history books say. What they’d became occurred gradually between school and serious living but the change was felt in the heart as sudden. They’
Tell us about this project: This work is rooted in questions of labour, materiality, and belonging. At its core is a process of carrying a material from one world into another - across time, across contexts, across cultural and professional boundaries. In this movement, the material begins to speak about
Tell us about the Tyre Series: This series of works began in 2021, as I revisited earlier modes of making while seeking a process that was all-encompassing, labour-intensive, and intentional - one that approached the pixel as a physical object. At a time when I lacked space and workshop access,