BIG £ANG! BOOM + BU$T

 

© 2019 polycotton, stainless steel polls, two, double-sided flags, 110cm x 90cm
Exhibited: ‘Flag of Convenience’ Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery, 2019.

 

The Flags were made by the company in Yorkshire who hold the Royal Warrant for flag making. On the first flag the word ‘BIG’ is appliqued on the front side, ‘BANG!’ on the back side. On the second flag ‘BOOM!’ is on the front side, ‘BUST’ on the back side, in the manner of a child’s ‘Pop!’ gun.  

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The phrase "Big Bang", used in reference to the deregulation of financial markets by Margaret Thatcher in 1986.
A "Boom and Bust" cycle is a key characteristic of capitalist market economies.A period of economic expansion is followed by a rapid contraction, leading to recessions and collapses in the market, which results in mass unemployment. The cycle is doomed to repeat.

 

I was prompted by the historian A.J.P. Taylor's assertion that: "No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic”– 

Flags commonly represent nation states, we are moving beyond national boundaries. but money knows no borders. Deregulation helped drive globalisation. It let capitalists move money virtually anywhere in the World – usually out of the reach of taxation.

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