The Crowd Series are oil paintings on ceramic tiles. They feature crowd crushes on pilgrim routes in India, in Primark in the UK and flooded streets in Bangladesh and New Orleans. Some depict rationing in the past (in the UK and USA) and food distribution in emerging economies in the present.
The paintings connect to a long tradition of mural art. I selected images from the internet and was physically disconnected from the disasters themselves. This prompts the viewer to question the reliability of the story teller.
In many ways this series was a kind of meditation during the unsettling period of returning to the UK in the midst of the economic crisis. The stark contrast between my experiences living in a non-competitive centre for experiential learning in India and then my return to the UK prompted very deep questioning about aligned cultural values.
Selected works from this series were shown at Cubitt Gallery (Aesthetics of art education group show), Stone Space London (Drawing Crowds group show) and featured in Bone Zine (printed and distributed in Hackney). The images shown here represent a selection of the hundreds of paintings made between 2008 and 2012.