About this Edition.
As with all these monthly Appendage's No.9 derives from a larger series of works which, in this case, is Untitled Shelves No.1 - 10. First made as an off-shoot from my installation Blades House at Gasworks, London in 2007, these shelf works tried to articulate my anxieties around economic globalisation and the resultant cultural homogeneity that was evidenced in the inescapable 'retail aesthetic' I was seeing everywhere from the high street to the boutique; homes to hospitals; and malls to mosques. It seemed to me that difference and distinction were being dissolved, and that regardless of ones faith, heritage, age or orientation, we were all being targeted with just one bland and reductive, yet seemingly upbeat, pop aesthetic of sexy pinks, lime greens and ocean blues that seemed to remove meaning and erase the exact differences we needed to have been embracing to attain a healthier democracy. To me this sameness felt inescapable and suffocating, and so I wanted the works to have that seemingly innocuous, unifying aesthetic on the surface, but then far darker undertones beneath as the viewer unravelled the complexities and contradictions of the objects and their motifs.
