Patina

Noun: a gloss or sheen on a surface resulting from age or polishing

In this project, I have created images of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, representing a critical view of Western society and its history. Setting it in the context of the Empire serves to remind us of where it all started. I have visualised this through fragmentation and attention to the overlooked, whilst maintaining a sense of opulence.

Making sense of the world, its people and histories is, to a varying degree, everyone’s concern. However, the stories we are told and the myths we create often overlook the painful realities of many people’s lives, and the cruel and traumatic ways in which we came to enjoy the comforts of 21st-century life, through empire, slavery and more recently through debt.

The Royal Pavilion, though only a museum, links us indexically to our past and empire, through its objects and architecture, and these images.