British Foreign Policy c. 1842

Image via Wikipedia

There I was in Nanjing doing some work in my capacity as international archaeologist adventurer when i happened across an important archaeological artifact that sheds some light on Victorian international relations. It’s a small  fragment of the original ‘Treaty of Nanking‘ that was presented to the Chinese by the British after the treaty was ratified by Queen Victoria and Doaguang Emperor in 1842. This was, of course, back when the British Empire was really something to behold and British foreign policy was perhaps a trifle more aggressive.

As befits my part-time international adventuring job (sadly it pays better than art) I hastened the fragment out of the country at the first opportunity from under the noses of the curious authorities (therein lies another tale for another time). Nonetheless it is an interesting curio with a certain historical value that should fetch a handsome sum from some museum or other. I believe Queen Victoria had thought it amusing to get the treaty ‘set in stone’ so they would get the message that little bit more clearly. I have had to censor this for public consumption however. How simply delightful all the same!

Cheers

id-iom

Title: Treaty of Nanking fragment

Media: Stencils and spraypaint on slate

Size: 24 x 50cm approx

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Dibo’s, dibo’s everywhere!

Like Su-Bo, Dibo’s will soon be everywhere. I was reading the other day that it is predicted that diabetes will affect half of all Americans by the end of the decade. Now that is going to be more than 150 million people and will annually cost around 10% (about $500 billion) of their entire healthcare budget. Now surely with all this over-eating and lack of exercise even their superheroes are eventually going to succumb. With this in mind I’ve depicted an overweight Superman (he can still just about fly though due to our sun that powers him) taking an overweight lady to the nearest hospital so she can be surgically removed from the telephone box in which she has accidentally been trapped.

I finished the original version of this piece last week and then took it outside in the sunshine to get a photo. As i’ve learned slate is a lovely medium to work with but can be fragile when it hits the floor… At least i managed to get a shot of it before it broke. Then i decided that there’s no point cursing at yourself for too long and thought i may as well just get to work on another. So version two is at the bottom and comes complete with a dose of glow-in-the-dark paint emanating from the sun that makes Superman so super.

Cheers

id-iom

Type 2 Nation (U.S version)

Top: original piece

Middle: broken piece! 😦

Bottom: new piece! 🙂

Media: Stencils and spraypaint on slate

£150