Shopping Baskets

I have started work on the 4 shopping baskets which feature in my piece.

I have used shopping trolleys and baskets in several of my artworks. I find them powerful symbols of both abundance and want. The shopping trolley piled high with consumer goods juxtaposed with the desolate image of a trolley upside down in a canal.

I became drawn to utilizing the shopping trolley after reading ‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy. This is a post-apocalyptic novel of a journey taken by an unnamed father and son. All their possessions are placed in a supermarket trolley pushed through a harsh and bleak landscape, grey with dust and lacking in sustenance. The book is beautifully written and created haunting images in my mind that I felt compelled to use in my work.

By filling the void of the baskets with concrete I am deigning its ability to provide and sustain, replacing that space with a material which is non- organic, dominant in its use to control nature,   associated with conflict and insecurity.