Advertising agency Mother is opening the doors to a retrospective of its most impactful non-commercial work from the past 21 years. Taking a journey through time, it offers a poignant commentary to run alongside the ever-evolving cultural backdrop since 1996.
Often seen as controversial at the time, each of the exhibits all aimed to highlight an injustice and enact change or simply entertain. The Not For Sale exhibition is the first time the collection’s highlights will be shown together.
Some of the pieces on show include:
Football Hoolidan, 1998: Cultural icons or national disgrace? For the 1998 France World Cup, Mother decided to ask whether the UK’s football hooligans could, in fact, be both. An updated version of the typical football plater models, these figurines came armed with export lager, crowbars and ice cream, and were accompanied by a list of popular chants including ‘you’re French and you know you are’ (helpfully translated into four languages). The National Criminal Intelligence service (NCIS) described the exercise as ‘disgusting and an attempt to glorify violence’, while Arena magazine called it a ‘moment of genius’.
In 2015, Mother invited American Christ look-a-like – the late, great Kevin Lee Light – to London to explore the city and meet its residents. His appearance encouraged discussion about spirituality, tolerance, belief – and the likelihood of Jesus wearing Nike trainers. Endless selfies ensued, along with an encounter with Satan himself, Nigel Farage. The meeting generated column inches in various papers, including Lucifer’s own tome, The Daily Mail. Art Critic Ossian Ward favourably reviewed the performance piece.
Mari and Josef, 2003: A film which revisits the classic ‘no room at the inn’ Christmas story by following a young, heavily pregnant Eastern European couple around town as they drift from five-star lodging to five-star lodging, desperate for a bed for the night. We find that, a couple of thousand years after the birth of Christ, the Christmas spirit isn’t what it once was.
To Russia with Love, 2013: In 2013, Vladamir Putin introduced a law banning ‘homosexual propaganda’, which kickstarted a wave of homophobic attacks on LGBT Russians. Mother decided to respond to this hatred with love and craftsmanship by sending over matryoshka dolls of famous national LGBT heroes including Sir Elton John, the late George Michael and Olympian Tom Daley.
Free the Feed, 2017: The UK has the lowest rate of public breastfeeding in the world. Mother decided to respond to this absurd statistic with another absurdity: putting a giant inflatable breast on top of a building in Shoreditch. 650 million views and 8.4 million #FreeTheFeed Twitter conversations later and it was clear that a lot of poeple had something to say about society’s shaming attitude to public breastfeeding.
Not For Sale: exhibition on 21 years of Mother Friday 26th January 2018, 10am – 6pm
Old Central St Martin’s, 12-42 Southampton Row, London WC1B 4AF
Tickets are free at http://goo.gl/Mp9fZQ
