My Estate of Mind is a new exhibition for the Museum of Contemporary Cuts by the British artist Jordan McKenzie. In his artworks McKenzie explores the relationship between hierarchical systems of power, mythological representations of grandeur and the constantly incumbent presence of these systems in people’s daily lives. The artist pierces the traditional representation of British society presenting the viewer with a critique that, by making use of traditional stereotypes, reveals the depths of societal crisis and despair. Through the medium of performance and the absurd character of Monsieur Poo-Pourri McKenzie “conflates the housing estate with that of the country estate in order to create re-imagined and re-enchanted spaces,” revealing the state of world’s current affairs.
Conceived by Lanfranco Aceti, and in collaboration with Marquard Smith, the exhibition analyzes, through McKenzie’s artworks that are rooted in a council estate in Britain, the post-postcolonial failed aspirations and unflinching representation of power, which have been exemplified and edulcorated in loved British characters like that of Hyacinth Bucket in the television sitcom Keeping Up Appearances (1990-1995).
McKenzie with the creation of his character Monsieur Poo-Pourri conflates the absurdity of daily life in a council estate and upper middle class aspirations and vane glories of British society which jar in a cacophony of socio-political imaginaries.
In a moment in which the politics of Britain are increasingly detached by the reality of the country and determined by the aspirations of the upper classes, apparently still willing and committed to rule the world, the artworks selected for this exhibition provide a moment for pause and reflection on the distorted rhetorics and national discourses of the Body Politic, not just in Britain but worldwide.
Senior curator: Lanfranco Aceti. Guest curator: Marquard Smith. Curator: Jonathan Munro.
10 October 2014 to 1 November 2014
Museum of Contemporary Cuts: http:/www.museumofcontemporarycuts.org
With the gracious support of Arts Council England and British Council.
Image: Jordan McKenzie, Monsieur Takes A Dip, 2010. Courtesy of the artist. Photograph by Andy Whale.