My Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Elizabeth II is the main character of my new artwork, entitled “ANGER“. The audio-experience follows her journey into an apocalyptic, sci-fi, epic adventure, heavily influenced by my personal Covid-quarantine. The work touches on class, Brexit, employment, and mental health - and of course there is a healthy does of auto-biography distributed about the place.
The artwork is by no means angry at the Queen as a person, or her family for that matter, on the contrary, in fact, I have written the character largely to reflect the relationship I had with my own grandmother, as a human, and I hope to have done some justice to both women. That’s why I call it ‘my Queen Elizabeth‘, because it’s my interpretation. However, I have used Queen Elizabeth’s identity as a kind of raw material to discuss the class system in the UK; almost all of the dialogue from her character is quoted directly from speeches, interviews and public announcements. It’s all tongue-in-cheek, following the great British tradition of satire! So stay calm!
“Leopold pulled at a velvet rope dangling above his head, the motion of which dropped a curtain behind Elizabeth. A window looked onto a grassy enclosure. “I say!” exclaimed Elizabeth, as she gazed upon a marvellous creature, slithering about on multiple tentacles. It appeared to have a dozen eyes, several horns, and a body shimmering in the light with innumerable polypropylene wings. Her staffers gasped and reached for their mobile devices to take pictures, before remembering they had all been confiscated.”
I have always been fascinated with the concept of Monarchy. I’m a Brighton boy, so you would be hard-pressed to find many pro-monarchists in the liberal circles I grew up in, and I accept this bias totally. But as I grew up, the concept of nobility struck me again and again as some dark shadow looming over the facade of our democracy. As a young teenager, I still remember the moment when I fully understood what The House of Lords meant… “but… we are a democracy, aren’t we? How can there be inherited positions of governance?!“ I consistently asked myself (and those around me, usually to their annoyance). Since then I have skirted around this issue with Lord Sainsbury himself, who is notably liberal and philanthropic to the Arts and Sciences, yet I was afraid to directly address this issue with him… but why? Surely he is supposed to be my equal in this society, yet the weight of his inherited office crushed my confidence like an ant. It still does - even when I find myself with someone simply speaking RP, or with that private-school confidence - it intimidates me. As it’s supposed to. And artists are particularly confounded by this dilemma, for reasons I doubt I need to explain. Again, I liked chatting to Lord Sainsbury, and I do not blame him for his inheritance, but still… he is entirely unelected and his opinions shape our country. I struggle with this. My project The Clockwork Earl touches on this topic.
Growing up, Prince Harry was only 4 years older than me, so I always had an eye on his progress. Not as competition… but somehow a little bit as competition. I was intensely curious what made this family so special, perhaps naively, and what made these Princes so elevated above myself, my brother and the kids in my neighbourhood. My defining characteristic has always been my artwork; even from before I could articulate with speech and writing, I was already illustrating my thoughts on the world around me. So my attention really focussed when Prince Harry released his A Level Art final project, showcased by the world’s global media. Very soon afterwards he was accused of cheating . The art teacher accused him of being a ‘weak student‘ and noted that the Head of Art at Eton completed all of his artwork for him. Again, I will keep repeating myself, I do not blame young Harry for the predicament he was in, but the same questions kept pouring in - are we even pretending to be in a meritocracy here?
As an adult I can see the naivety in this question - of course we are not aiming for a meritocracy, and we never have. The narrative of ANGER deals with this in my own bizarre and abstract way.
And then we get onto the really sinister stuff - the history of the Windsor family, the association with Empire, Colonialism, the very recent and continuing link to the Nazis, the paedophilia of Prince Andrew… to be honest, there seem to be more skeletons in the Windsor closet than most average families. And to think that these people were somehow appointed by the divine right of God, a higher, all-knowing being - I can’t quite get my head around that.
Having said all that, I am very happy to see that the Princes are shining their lights on the issue of mental health, especially in young men, which absolutely needs attention in the UK today. And I am gripped by the stir which Megan and Harry are making - to be honest I’m a little in awe of what I’ve seen. Their desire to make their own money, releasing them from the obligation of ruling, it’s pretty wild - although I admittedly know very little about it.
I am conflicted, as many British people are, about Royalty and nobility. I do not know the answer. They are so unfuturistic, I just couldn’t resist making a sci-fi project about them. So instead of offering anything actionable to deal with my feelings, I wrote a 50,000 word narrative about biblical mutants fighting a war against a young artist and The Queen of England. I hope that’s an acceptable response.
I am so excited about my new project, set to be released mid-late October with Route 17 Media Art Centre, South Korea. So please check out updates! It’ll be a digital audio-experience, over 3 chapters and 9 parts. Sort of like an audiobook, with immersive elements, a series of accompanying sculptures and a lot of people eating each other’s innards.
I’M SO EXCITED I’M LITERALLY LOSING SLEEP OVER THIS PROJECT!
