Title: Marcus Harvey: White Riot
Location: White Cube, Hoxton Square
Date: 2009-02-27
Marcus Harvey: White Riot
Marcus Harvey is best known for his infamous portrait of Myra Hindley, which came to prominence in the ‘Sensation’ exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London (1997). The centrepiece of his new exhibition, ‘White Riot’, a title taken from the 1977 debut single by punk band The Clash, is a work that seeks to be no less powerful or provocative. A large-scale black and white portrait of Margaret Thatcher, ‘Maggie’ is based on a famous photograph of Thatcher taken at the launch of the 1987 Tory Party election manifesto. It is composed of over 15,000 plaster-cast objects ranging from vegetables to sex toys.
Alongside ‘Maggie’, Harvey presents three monumental bronze sculptures. ‘Victoria’, a deflated 1960’s football, suggests bygone World Cup glory. ‘Nike’, a winged WWII helmet resting on rifle barrels, forms a classical parody of military heroism. ‘The Lord High Admiral’ is modelled on the statue of Sir Winston Churchill situated in London’s Parliament Square that was vandalised in the 1990’s by Poll Tax rioters, who added a slice of grass turf, providing him with a green Mohican.
