Exhibition targeting the ‘Stinking Rich’ stops off in Bristol

With artworks targeting the world’s wealthiest people, a new exhibition at Centespace gallery protests against the exploitation of the vulnerable.

STINKING RICH: The Cost Of Wealth features the work of Plymouth-based artist Andrew Swan, and is stopping off in Bristol as part of the exhibition’s tour around the UK.

For the last five years, artist Andrew Swan has volunteered at the Penzance Street Food Project and has helped provide hot meals to those who need it.

After observing the lives of those he encountered, Swan decided to focus his art on people who reinforce systemic issues that contribute to homelessness and poverty.

One of the most striking pieces from the exhibition is titled Catch Me If You Can! From a distance, the work is just a metal plate with sentences etched onto it. Upon closer inspection, these are the sexist, homophobic and racist quotes written by Boris Johnson over his time as a political columnist.

Andrew Swan, Catch Me If You Can! (2021) – photo: Millie Pick

Swan refuses to mute his voice as he assertively shines a light on those who abuse their power.

Swans’ piece 43 conveys the harmful effects of extreme wealth. This poignant metal etching reimagines the queen on the stamp as a homeless woman.

The etching is titled 43 in recognition of the average age that homeless women live to.

Andrew Swan 43 – photo: Millie Pick

The central piece of this exhibition are the ‘tomb covers’ of seven billionaires: Jeff Bezos (Amazon); Alice Walton (Walmart); James Dyson (Dyson); Kirsten Rausing (Tetra Pak); Jim Ratcliffe (Ineos); Denise Coates (BET365) and Chuck Feeney.

In mediaeval times, the rich had tombs built above ground in fear of being buried alive. These crypts weren’t able to subdue odours and so the term ‘stinking rich’ emerged.

Swan’s tomb covers present each billionaire surrounded by representations of their abuses, while the people that they have scorned lie at their feet.

Andrew Swan, STINKING RICH: The Cost Of Wealth – photo: Millie Pick

The only billionaire that Swan depicted as free from wrongdoings is Chuck Feeney, the billionaire that gave his fortune away.

To juxtapose his art’s attention on extreme wealth and its effect on the environment, Swan is careful to use sustainable art materials.

A lot of Swan’s work is made by etching into metal plates using a copper sulphate/salt/water solution.

Andrew Swan, Street Market – photo: Millie Pick

He obtains copper sulphate crystals from farm supply shops as they are used by farms as disinfectant in foot baths for cattle.

Swan prevents the chemical reaction from the copper sulphate and the metal from entering the water supply by straining and re-using the water.

The metal plates that he uses are recycled printing plates sourced from a printing company that he lived opposite to and the wood for the frames that Swan constructs are sourced from local skips and building sites, eliminating any carbon footprint.

STINKING RICH: The Cost Of Wealth is touring the UK, and will head to London on September 1- before visiting Macclesfield on 15 October.

Read more: Anthony Whishaw at 92 Exhibition Launches at RWA

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