MERRY HILL
2000
Woodcut
61x74cm
ENQUIRE
Inspired by the very oppressive Merry Hill shopping centre in Brierley Hill.
A local doggerel inspired A local doggerel inspired by this area written sometime in the 18th century from an unknown writer goes
‘When Satan stood on Brierley Hill
and far around him gazed
he said “I never shall again
at hells flames be amazed’ (As quoted in Harold Parsons – Portrait of the Black Country p 22)
Although the flames of the heavy industry that once engulfed , scarred and charred this area have now mostly receded , a different kind of hell has descended in the form of a soul-destroying consumerism taking place in glass domed building , where escalators transport weary shoppers in search of solace to the next quick fix of buying. the environment crowds in like a vortex sucking ever deeper into the bowls of the capitalist consumer machine.
A local doggerel inspired A local doggerel inspired by this area written sometime in the 18th century from an unknown writer goes
‘When Satan stood on Brierley Hill
and far around him gazed
he said “I never shall again
at hells flames be amazed’ (As quoted in Harold Parsons – Portrait of the Black Country p 22)
Although the flames of the heavy industry that once engulfed , scarred and charred this area have now mostly receded , a different kind of hell has descended in the form of a soul-destroying consumerism taking place in glass domed building , where escalators transport weary shoppers in search of solace to the next quick fix of buying. the environment crowds in like a vortex sucking ever deeper into the bowls of the capitalist consumer machine.