Menace to Society


Small Menace, 1999	h - 90cm, d - 20cm, w - 20cm
	These ‘fetish’ dolls were inspired by press reports of boy soldiers carrying British weapons in Sierra Leone and by stories of Yardies in Britain. They reflect the Western fear of, and desire for, the Exotic. One literary parallel of this is the Alex Garland book 'The Beach', which describes both the thrill and fear of travel in South East Asia. This fear combined with the local 'colour' is part of the thrill - such as the passage where the hero is persuaded to drink snake blood. In London each year the Nottinghill Carnival attracts young people from Europe and beyond, exotic colour with an undercurrent of danger or tension all adding up to an exciting 'street' experience. The pieces also reflect an on-going interest in the souvenir ‘dolls-of-the-world’, available in national dress at every international airport. These however are made of toy dolls and toy guns, cheap pound-store ephemera and crochet fragments, all gathered in Brixton.
Red Menace, 2000 h -130cm, w - 80cm, d - 45cm