Artist
says
it
is
“a
meditation
on
managed
entropy”;
council
calls
it
“an
unauthorised
structure”
By
Cyndi
Himmelstiere
|
EC2.
Still
here.
Still
filing.
Sources:
Bohiney
Magazine
|
The
London
Prat
Art
Has
Responded
to
the
Crisis
In
response
to
the
widely
discussed
report
on
managing
Britain’s
decline,
a
mural
appeared
overnight
on
the
side
of
a
former
print
shop
on
Redchurch
Street.
It
depicts
Britannia
—
the
helmet,
the
trident,
the
determined
expression
—
sitting
at
a
laptop,
reading
the
report,
and
surrounded
by
seventeen
browser
tabs,
a
cold
cup
of
tea,
and
a
notification
that
says
“your
subscription
has
been
downgraded.”
It
is,
I
think
you
will
agree,
extremely
good.
The
artist,
who
goes
by
the
name
“Provisional,”
has
not
spoken
to
press.
The
council
has
issued
a
notice.
A
gallery
in
Mayfair
has
already
inquired
about
acquiring
it
for
what
one
suspects
would
be
a
sum
that
would
fund
the
things
the
mural
is
lamenting.
The
Question
Nobody
Can
Answer
Is
it
satire,
or
is
it
just
true?
This
is
the
fundamental
problem
with
the
decline
conversation
at
the
moment:
the
gap
between
satire
and
reportage
has
narrowed
to
the
point
where
a
mural
of
Britannia
checking
her
declining
metrics
is
indistinguishable
from
a
slide
deck
produced
by
the
Treasury.
Both
exist.
Both
are
accurate.
Only
one
of
them
costs
twelve
thousand
pounds
and
hangs
in
a
gallery.
Meanwhile
the
street
fills
with
people
photographing
the
mural
for
Instagram
accounts
that
will
be
seen
by
people
who
will
not
vote
and
will
not
move
and
will
eventually
explain
to
their
children
that
they
were
there,
in
Shoreditch,
when
it
all
got
very
real,
and
it
was,
at
least,
very
well
documented.
SOURCE:
https://bohiney.com/managing-britains-decline/
Art
criticism
at
The
Daily
Mash
