(2017) DWP benefits papers, eggshells, ply, plastic, glue
Shown at Tate Modern as part of Tate Exchange for Shape Arts ‘Ways of Seeing’ exhibition, Feb 2017.
Fragile paper boats crafted from benefits paperwork from the DWP sail on a sea of knife-edge-like eggshells. This piece tries to capture the instability and stress of life on benefits. The fragility and sharp viscerality of the sea of eggshells gradually dissolves to crumbs at the edge, and the paper boats become progressively more distorted until they are merely fragments of scrunched-up paper.
The piece explores the sense of fragility, as well as futility, of trying to build a life on disability benefits. This piece is less political than an emotional exploration of the tension inherent in the receipt of benefits – the very provision that you need to live and which demands your gratitude is also that which condemns you to a sense of disempowerment and inadequacy.
Paper boats and eggshells are a refrain across my work.
This was intended to be the second of two pieces about life on benefits. Dole Scum I was conceived as a performance piece, but is yet to be realised. The artist rips up her benefits papers, forms them into little balls, and painstakingly lines them up on the gallery floor. This would involve genuine physical pain and exhaustion for the artist – this sense of endurance is inherent. Please contact me if you’re interested in commissioning this piece.
