Two Temple Place’s forthcoming exhibition tackles a century of misunderstanding and misrepresentation
The art world, like Britain as a whole, has a class problem. Through history, working-class people have been ignored, censored and filtered through a reductive lens. Lives Less Ordinary: Working-Class Britain Re-seen seeks to reframe depictions of working-class life with nuance and dignity.
Rene Matić, Paul and Zac in the Garden, 2022, Inkjet Print © The Artist.png
Rene Matić, Paul and Zac in the Garden, 2022, Inkjet Print © The Artist
Following the riots earlier this year, conversations about class and culture, it seems, have never been more to the forefront. Only last week the Sutton Trust released a report finding that young people from working-class backgrounds are being ‘blocked’ from entering the creative industries. The report found that whilst 7% of people educated in the UK attend private fee-paying schools, 43% of Britain’s best-selling classical musicians and 35% of Bafta-nominated actors are alumni of private schools. What’s more, the response to this summer’s far-riots riots revealed entrenched class-based prejudice across society, with many supposedly liberal commentators linking “reactionary violence” and “uncultured views” with people from working class backgrounds (see Dan Evans speaking to Dazed).
Two Temple Place’s show is then all the more urgent. Celebrating and reevaluating working-class representation in postwar British art, the show foregrounds a comprehensive and complicated story of class and identity – what Richard Hoggart described as ‘the sprawling and multitudinous and infinitely detailed character of working-class life.’
© The Estate of Bert Hardy, The Hyman Collection, Courtesy of the Centre for British Photography.jpg
© The Estate of Bert Hardy, The Hyman Collection, Courtesy of the Centre for British Photography
In recent decades, there has been a growing critical appreciation for a number of artists and collectives. Two Temple Place adds to this burgeoning discourse with a fresh and uncompromising picture – exploring themes across the family, home, social sites of gathering as well as the intersections between class, race, gender and sexuality.
The lineup brings together influential historical figures with exciting contemporary artists: Rene Matic, Feministo, Roman Manfredi, Joanne Coates, Mahtab Hussain, Hannah Starkey, Ken Grant, Masterji, Chila Burman, Corbin Shaw, Kitchen Sink realism movement, Jasleen Kaur, Matthew Arthur Williams, Jo Spence, Sirkka Lisa-Konttien, Bert Hardy, Beryl Cook and more.
