‘Four Treasons’

The Industrial Revolution (1750 onwards) was a critical time of change; advances in machine technologies enabled the production of steam from coal, and then electricity which empowered efficient manufacturing processes and global transport.  Our cities became the epicentres for trade, and a melting pot for developing new economic classes and political systems. 

Industrialisation occurred to the detriment of our natural world, which continues today.  Our cultures began to disassociate ourselves from nature, and in its place is a world driven by the economic and political market where profit and loss drive consumerism, and the control of our world’s resources.

The ‘Four Seasons’ concept has been documented throughout many cultures to represent the order of nature, often through mythical stories and art.  The ‘Four Season Figurines’ made in Staffordshire England (pictured) are prime examples of how artists can reimagine nature as fantasy and turn them into a commodity.

“Figurines as cultural artefacts have an important role to playing enhancing awareness and understanding of human activity and its communication among peoples.” (Dr Hanz Syz- National Museum of American History)

 Using the ‘Four Seasons’ narrative, I wanted to explore our current socio-political and economic structures as seasons, which led to my work ‘The Four Treasons’ (2020 – 22).  This work consists of four vehicles which are allegorical constructs, representing the four-socio political-economic seasons: Propaganda (Autumn), Destruction (Winter), Rebuild (Spring), Leisure (Summer)

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