Wealth Divide ‘Wage disparity between the UK’s top earners and the rest of the working population will soon return to levels of the Victorian era’ ‘the pay gap between the corporate elite and the general public is widening beyond control’ The Guardian May 2011 In the last couple of years I have often read reports about the widening pay gap in the UK, combined with reports of bankers bonuses, and the growing wealth of the already super rich. With the government cuts and austerity measures in this country, it seems like the general public are having to pay, whilst the rich are getting richer and tax avoidance by corporations is rife. The growing wealth divide is a concerning element of the current ecomonic crisis and recession. The Occupy movement has brought this to the forefront globally, highlighting the increasing wealth divide as one of the consequences of advanced capitalism. I am an artist, not an economist or politics expert! But what this situation says to me is inequality, and I believe in equality and fairness for all. My piece ‘Wealth Divide’ attempts to highlight the imbalance, I don’t know the answers but I do want to raise the question. Taking a medieval painting called The Triumph of Death by Pieter Breughal as my starting point, the painting includes references to Victorian Poverty paintings, metaphorical symbols of wealth and greed and contemporary references to poverty, imbalance and protest.
Wealth Divide 2012 Oil on Canvas 140 x 110cms (measurement including frame)
The original painting is a panoramic view of all walks of society, rich or poor, peasants, soldiers and kings set within a desolate landscape, armies of skeletons are advancing upon them signifying death. I chose this piece as my starting point because I am interested in portraying the fleeting, transient nature of life, something that is forefront in much of my recent work. I feel that having an almost morbid presence in my work emphasises the pressing nature of the themes and issues I explore, suggesting that time is of the essence.
Tinsel Edwards