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Will a whole generation’s freedom of speech and artwork produced by the lower or working class sector of British society be erased from our history in a Bourgeoisie attempt to cleanse British society's popular culture to represent only the rich or socially unaffected?

By Angela Edwards

While walking around the Tate or Saatchi art gallery I was as an Artist alerted to the fact that all the Young Brit Artists from humble working class backgrounds such as Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin who’s work in the artist sector I hold in high regard although still referred to as young where indeed all over forty years of age.

This may not seem of relevance except for me as a working class twenty odd year old artist with vision it was rather disappointing not to be able to see another generation of young i.e. in their early twenties to thirties coming through the British art scene.

It seemed tragic that since the early nineties Brit art rebellion everything working class, had been silenced and my generation of the future working or lower-class voice of British society inflicted upon the British art scene had been silenced by upper-class fascism. For now we could lose a whole generations work and only suffer middleclass unaffected representations of our time creating a small minority groups preconception of what living in our modern times in the first decade of the millennium onwards was in reality like. As all artwork is now governed by money for example in the hands of dealers to the artists whom mainly equate the ability to pay off large Art School debts with imagination or natural talent it begs the question is the art scene once a platform for social taboo’s or enlightenment now just another branch of a company privatised by the elite sold off for cash to the highest bidder.

On the subject of Art school another aspect that is enforced upon the ability to show in now most commercial galleries in order to now even attend art school you need to have money for what lower or working class person even if they earn minimum wage after paying for rent, getting half there education paid off if lucky by loans can afford the rest of the fee’s for three years training.

Another way of an Artist setting up is private gallery hire although with loans from the Princes trust or Arts council often for individuals ventures denied this is another unless lucky aspect of the Art world sectioned off to the elite upper classes with money to fund such projects.

Then thoughts of maybe the Tate would be more open-minded or accessible to the working class sector of the unheard masses although the Tate only now deals with artists of international repute, or national notoriety in the art world which in order to be, you would have at least have been able to show several times in a reputable venue or connected to the middleclass elite network of commercial art galleries, leaving you to depend upon yourself to show privately which takes money i.e. making exposure again in the Art scene a luxury reserved for the rich meaning that we as British  citizens only are able to when going to a gallery space the working classes have funded through lottery ticket sales ,council taxes, donations a place that belongs to the British people experience middleclass idealism , preconception ,and work minus representation of us thanks a lot .

You ‘d think that the White Cube would be more receptive to young innovators of British Art mean it was them who started the whole early nineties Brit art rebellion thing, well apparently not they do not even except submissions from young cutting edge British artists which begs the question are the people who were the pioneers of Young Brit Art now stunting its growth not allowing a new lower class politically aware generation of artists to evolve the Brit scene into something more.

Have the White cube now that they have manipulated the art scene decided to cut off the emergence of new artists in a bid to privatise the art market with their products of Tracey Emin, The Chapman Brothers, Hirst resorting to upper-class elitism and nepotism meaning they were not willing in their narrow-mindedness and money orientated capitalist attitudes to open their doors to the freedom of new wave art.

 When struggling as a painter or artist realising cutting edge issues such as lower-class rape, drug addiction, prostitution, homelessness all of which before I started painting I have had personal experience of within my life and exploring topics such as feminism and female sexuality using urban distinctive graffiti style, you contemplate looking for outsider group representation, so while on the web I searched for a more political radical open mined group of painters whom might accept my past and social standing as a politically aware working class artist or the fact that I did not paint like Van gogh , Cézanne , Basquiat or anybody in particular accept for myself.

It was during this time I came across a group named the Stuckists I did not agree with their stance on conceptionlist art but the fact that one had been a bank robber and another a fetish dominatrix gave me hope that perhaps this group of degenerates would accept my past no questions asked. So fed up with being constantly not even told to get lost your crap just ignored I decided to as a working class artist to give it a go. I wrote to the stuckist ‘s whom apparently accept everybody regardless of background or whether he or she likes your work the only criteria being you’re a painter to set up a Stuckist group.  As I did not hear from the Stuckists for a week I thought Bet their stuck up their own rectums like the rest of the art world for even now a naff café or bar in Notting Hill can be if you are not painting the standard celebrity crap art etc and something more meaningful be just as elitist as Victoria Miro which would have previously also been a platform for lower-class or socially effected art. The stuckists did say I had all the right credentials for their radical group, I wondered what these were perhaps it was my stuck off attitude they were referring to.

As far as publishing my work on their website well not yet but they did gave me address of how to get a free website which helped as I am skint like most on the dole and registered me under my artist name of Cinderella Snow White Smith founder of the one woman Portobello pumpkin group. I know that stuckists are the Art worlds outsiders underdogs and some do troublemaker about unimportant issues like concept ional art bitching off any successful artist ‘s linked to Saatchi or the celebrity art world which is not of much interest to me besides I told them not to expect me to go to the Tate and take a piss on Tracey’s bed in protest but I ‘ve become disillusioned with the dream of a day when working-class cutting edge artists of my generation, the true Young Brit Art generation of now will be discovered or given exposure by  Sadie Coles or the White Cube which is rather to me sad as these art galleries I would have expected more from. Though joining the stuckists is a start to getting my work out there I am slightly worried that in order to be heard I’ve had to join a painting only accepted group, as I also write plays and would eventually like to as an artist use film mediums within my work and have also as a young artist explored sculpture mediums in my work like the conceptual Chapman brother s
so as this is  although my paintings cater to the stuckist ideals, my other artistic works do not.

So I have out of desperation had to comprise my full artistic expression and ideals which is  quite sad  but where’s a working-class self-taught politically aware artist meant to go what’s she meant to do when the whole art scene is contrived dictated to by a sector of posh snobs who wish to live in the illusion of British society being a twee Laura Ashley Primrose Hill,Madia Vale ,Hampstead where ever ensued utopia of middle and upper-class conformity which as with I and the majority of struggling classes is as far away from reality as a fairytale holds no identification , truth connection to  our lives. I guess to set up her own web page and wait until the posh snobs are ready to come off their thrones and give lower-class politically effected art a chance, which like hoping to be abducted by aliens not is not likely I won’t hold my breath.

The stuckists are confronted with problems in the fascist narrow-mindedness of websites regularly who feel that the artists work is too controversial closing now the painting viewing section of the site another aspect of all this I find hopeless as my art work is probly more controversial hard-hitting than most of the stuff on the site .So in this instance again I feel that we as artists are dead when censorship comes into place and that it is a violation to put boundaries upon any humans if not harming children or animals or anyone’s{take note Jack White} freedom of expression speech.

Another aspect of why our voices as socially effected working class artists are not being heard, for if the art world is to numb itself with censorship what are we as a society now and in the future to learn.

So I guess now we are we to only look to the works Of Emin or Hirst for identification of our class, and as a young generation of Artists spawned from working class society have our generation erased from art History our deserted youths freedom of speech muted for nobody to hear.

To live in an society and Art industry who denies the generation of now a voice, the youth a place in its landscape who suppresses the young full of dreams hope and beats them without any place into nothing, whom represents only now a small unaffected part of society only grants the voice of the young the future of our world to the spineless superficial bland characterless privileged ignorant upper and middle classes of our time.

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