LIFT YOUR SKINNY FISTS LIKE ANTENNAS TO HEAVEN

Bath Spa Library Commission Prize 2025.

Book. Limewood. 51 x 51cm.

A copy of Mrs Beeton's book of Cookery and Household Management open to the page about keeping a pet. This edition, published in 1961, states that monkeys and bush babies were increasing in popularity as pets. Combining this information with the bush babies in the paintings of Raqib Shaw, whose work refers to libricide. His painting The Perseverant Prophet reflects state sponsored destruction of books, as has happened in Gaza, Srinagar and Jaffna. The deliberate destruction of history and culture. My piece speaks to caution relating to the provenance of information. The carved animals inquire of their predicted futures, whether they had autonomy, to be kept as pets. A future that did not happen and wider, the precarity of culture and civilisation. The title is a quote from the second Godspeed You! Black Emperor album.

Below is my proposal document. I believe this might be able to view somewhere in the library. Click to enlarge.