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Lives Less Ordinary: Working Class Britain Re-seen review
Two Temple Place, London, 25th January 2025 – 20th April 2025
photo credit: Daniella Romano, Works in Two Temple Place
What does it mean to be working class? Lives Less Ordinary curated by Samantha Manton at Two Temple Place, London, examines this question through an optimistic lens, arguing that there has been too much focus on its hardships in the art world. Instead, it offers a narrative of celebration, with art as the site of joyful expression. Though this outlook risks sugar-coating the inevitable struggles of being working class, the exhibition’s hopefulness provides a much-needed fresh perspective on the topic.
New Art Exchange and Pub Landlord Bera Mahali, The Red Lion Pub Sign, 2016, painted wood
Place is a significant theme in the show, notwithstanding its location in the gothic mansion built for William Waldorf Astor in the 1890s. He inherited a family wealth found in property development and thus gave his architect, John Loughborough Pearson, an unlimited budget to create the building. Though its site appears somewhat of a contradiction, Lives Less Ordinary argues for the right of the working class to exist in such exalted spaces, not least because 19th-century artisans crafted its beauty.
The role of place is also contextualised in the artworks. Ideas of home and community alongside places of work are revisited across several rooms and two floors. Place is shown to be something to be disrupted and also savoured. The collaborative project between New Art Exchange and pub landlord Bera Mahali, The Red Lion Pub Sign, for example, reimagines the traditional British pub sign through the spread of desi pub culture in the Midlands in the 1970s. It tells the story of a declining pub industry, saved by Asian landlords who reinvented the pubs to support their community. It is a story of finding home, through food and love.
The role of place is also contextualised in the artworks. Ideas of home and community alongside places of work are revisited across several rooms and two floors. Place is shown to be something to be disrupted and also savoured. The collaborative project between New Art Exchange and pub landlord Bera Mahali, The Red Lion Pub Sign, for example, reimagines the traditional British pub sign through the spread of desi pub culture in the Midlands in the 1970s. It tells the story of a declining pub industry, saved by Asian landlords who reinvented the pubs to support their community. It is a story of finding home, through food and love.
Connor Coulston, Some of Us Prefer Illusion to Despair, 2021, glazed ceramic, neon, perspex
For artists like Connor Coulston, fantasy is a means to escape working class hardships. Coulston’s ceramics playfully intersect the memories of his childhood with queer desire. Some of us Prefer Illusion to Despair reflects Coulston’s teenage escapism into a parasocial relationship with Harry Styles. The exhibition, however, shows little of the struggles dictating the need for fantasy, leading us to question what that looks like.
Shirley Cameron, Monica Ross and Evelyn Silver (Photograph by Patsy Mullan), Triple Transformation: Monument to Working Women, 1985, photograph (documenting performance)
Protest is offered as another methodology for counteracting hardship. Patsy Mullan’s photographs documenting Monica Ross, Shirley Cameron and Evelyn Silver’s performance Triple Transformation: Monument to Working Women reclaim the idea of the monument for working-class women, rather than those with power. A placard reads “His Profit Her Labour”, reminding us of the existence of the power structures that create inequality. Julie Cook’s East London Stripper Collective destigmatises the sex work profession through ‘files’ representing stripping as a form of activism. The visitor is encouraged to flick through them, furthering their engagement and placing them closer to the subject of the work.
Every artwork produces an individual experience of being working class, which inevitably differ in their opinion as to whether their lives hold hope, struggle or both. In a world where today’s politics often prompt despair and adversity, a sprinkle of positivity does not go amiss, offering us some breathing space. Lives Less Ordinary provides its audience with a fresh narrative on being working class, in which fantasy, place and protest are central elements. With a wide range of works on show, this is an exhibition not to be missed.
Exhibition Link: https://twotempleplace.org/exhibitions/lives-less-ordinary/
Every artwork produces an individual experience of being working class, which inevitably differ in their opinion as to whether their lives hold hope, struggle or both. In a world where today’s politics often prompt despair and adversity, a sprinkle of positivity does not go amiss, offering us some breathing space. Lives Less Ordinary provides its audience with a fresh narrative on being working class, in which fantasy, place and protest are central elements. With a wide range of works on show, this is an exhibition not to be missed.
Exhibition Link: https://twotempleplace.org/exhibitions/lives-less-ordinary/
Article Written by Daniella Romano
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