This series, titled The Fun Stopped Here, presents an unsettling vision of a world in a state of disorder, through oppressive and powerful imagery.

My practice utilises narrative, figurative painting, with elements of allegory, as a form of socio-political commentary. At the heart of my artwork lies an exploration of the human condition, a perhaps futile attempt to decode it. Shrouded in ambiguity and offering varied interpretations and narrative readings, my work aims to invite debate by exposing the forgotten individuals, struggling to exist in contemporary society.

The elements of displacement, carnage and instability stem from the current socio-political climate and the politics of fear. From the shifting landscape of European politics, to the broader global scene of escalating nuclear tensions, the rise of terrorism, and mass migration. The series partly eludes to Bahktin’s Carnivalesque, in an allegorical sense, and to notions of the ‘world turned upside down’, re-interpreted in a semi-dystopian, Orwellian depiction. The actions and consequences within the paintings act as an observation of class issues, pertaining to widening levels of inequality and social mobility. This is partly inspired by my own background growing up in a forgotten, ex-mining village in the Midlands.