Regime Change

Exhibited at CRITICAL EDGE #5

May 2025, Handbag Factory Vauxhall

"Blending sculpture, painting, print, and film, this exhibition from Critical Edge Collective explores alternative ways of engaging with Vauxhall’s cultural heritage, power, and physicality – both visible and invisible – and reflects on the notion of the factory. The exhibition was a collection of pieces created by 25 artists in response to their exploration, research and engagement with The Handbag Factory, its surrounding area and history, bringing together unique perspectives, new ideas and innovative approaches to their work."

Critical edge #5 – Critical Edge Collective

Regime Change (2025)

Mixed media on OSB board

240x360cm

Vauxhall is home to two institutions symbolic of transatlantic imperial power; Mi6 the home of British foreign intelligence, and the US Embassy whose ability to fund lobby groups such as the British American Project may have allowed them to influence British democracy. The phrase ‘regime change’ is used to describe the removal of one government, often by force, to be replaced by another. Historically, the new governing body is one cooperative of Western-capitalist values and often replaces left-leaning, democratically elected leaders looking to redistribute wealth amongst the indigenous people.

Regime Change appears as a kind of ‘anti-billboard’; a comment on the opaque nature of mainstream media and its cooperation with US and UK foreign policy. The work features text and archival information in the form of images, cables and declassified documents that ought to be common knowledge about western atrocities; instead, they erode and die back into the surface without holding the power-classes accountable.

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