We’ve got some new work in the pipeline for an exhibition in Coventry. The work is set in an alternative future within which the citizens have united post-Brexit and have made great strides into healing the wounds caused by the current government. Community Unions comprised of local people are plentiful, giving previously muted individuals a voice within their communities, these unions have power locally, however, the government will only accept their decisions as advisory. Try as they might the community unions have only ever managed to change and alter local policy; the power to influence major and international policy still remains within the clutches of the current failing government. Throughout the turmoil following Brexit, the government somehow managed to cling to power. With drastically low opinion polls for both major parties, their reputation lays in tatters and their decision making remains hugely undermined by their performance throughout the immediate, post-Brexit financial crisis. Bailed out by the public, both financially and by innovative policies generated through the hard work of the Community Unions, the current government has taken the decision to make colossal structural change throughout the country.
After intense lobbying and analysis of focus groups, the current government has taken the decision that, in order to achieve a similar level of equality as generated by the Community Unions, they must reduce the level of bureaucracy present in the current climate. Under pressure to deliver and implement this policy before the 2022 General Election, they rush out their ‘No Lanes, No Lines’ policy. A decree that orders local councils to take steps to remove the “Lanes and Lines that divide our society”, this includes but is not limited to: all road markings (road users can drive on any side of the road that suits them), lanes at local swimming pools, all markings on sports pitches, and queuing in general, to name just a few.
The work itself comprises of three designs for a selection of fictitious road signs issued by the government as part of the implication of their ‘No Lanes, No Lines’ policy. These signs will be the exact dimensions as the current UK road signs and (if there is space in the gallery) hung at 7ft; the minimum height road signs are instructed to be installed by UK law. Whilst working as a satire of the government’s misunderstanding of the general public opinion’s it suggests that nobody really knows which direction we are heading in, surprisingly, not even the people in charge.
