The artist Lucy Beech asked me to write an original essay to accompany her new work Me and Mine for its first exhibition at The Harris Museum, Preston.
The video work concerns women in 'death industries', following a fictionalised funeral director at an annual industry awards weekend. More broadly, it regards the place of emotional labour in changing socioeconomic circumstances.
I chose as the fulcrum of the essay the funeral of the famous gangster Ronnie Kray, and representations that have been produced of it, both in another artist video work, Island Race by William Raban, and in UK national newspapers. With this very different historical moment, the essay is able to approach the significance of representation production in making an industry of death – a conspicuous theme also within Beech's work.
You can read the essay in full here and read more about Me and Minehere.
