Enough Rope (To Hang Yourself)

The British Pavilion at the 2019 Bombay Beach Biennale

One of several 10 ft x 10 ft steel cubed international pavilions being shown at the 2019 Bombay Beach Biennale, the British Pavilion was created to coincide with Britain’s exit from the EU (Brexit). “Enough Rope (To Hang Yourself)” is an interpretation of the British flag, known as the Union Jack. Seen as the flag from just one viewpoint, it starts to breakdown and deconstruct as one moves around it. The installation is composed of 58 lines of shipping line (rope), a nod to the British Empire’s former naval dominance, as well as an ironic reference to each of the 58 British Territories at the time of the 1924 British Empire Exhibition; its official objective being "to stimulate trade, strengthen bonds that bind mother Country to her Sister States and Daughters, to bring into closer contact one with each other, to enable all who owe allegiance to the British flag to meet on common ground and learn to know each other".

Revealed at the aptly named 2019 Bombay Beach Biennale located on the edge of California’s post-apocalyptic Salton Sea, the installation is intended to hint at the potential outcome of a divided nation in crisis. “Enough Rope (To Hang Yourself)” is also part of the 2020 exhibition “Complex States: Art in the Years of Brexit” curated by Vassiliki Tzanakou & Catherine Harrington.