On Pugin
Mark Duffy
On Pugin closely surveys the ephemera and dirt of the carpets of the Houses of Parliament, inviting a closer, more detailed scrutiny of a nuanced mess. The series is named after Augustus Pugin, the architect driven mad by his design of the Houses of Commons, whose patterns are still replicated in furnishings today. Linking Pugin with contemporary politics suggests Parliament’s emphatic commitment to preserving ‘fraying’ political heritage is impeding democratic progress in the institution.
The Brexit Archive
I began building a Brexit Archive following the Referendum. At a time when was much being said about Brexit, this discourse had yet to materialise in any visible, tangible way. The Archive has since evolved to combine factual and fictitious artefacts of Brexit. Some are genuine souvenirs and documents, while others are symbolic statements that comment on Brexit’s legacy.