Job Centre Junior (2017)

The performance installation and newspaper was made through a research process with the Centre for Social Policy Analysis in Bath. The work focuses on how policy change directly affects low income families through austerity measures that sanction welfare claimants and push people into vulnerable positions.

The installation creates a space that references the job centre but re-defines the age parameters. It also comments on the actions of policy makers that put children into poverty by inflexible tactics aimed at their parents. The work recalls how the government view children as future labour, using measures directed towards their future adult life (such as the Child Trust Fund), rather than understanding and respecting their position as children in the immediate situation.

The performance inside the installation relies on a vocal score which is contained within the supporting newspaper. The vocal score brings together two reality television shows, alongside factual statements from researchers and other sources such as interviews. Pairing poverty, extreme wealth, and reality the performance aims to highlight the disparity in everyday life and the stigmata towards poverty being generated by the media and ruling elite.

Performed by: Samantha Davies, Luca and Hugo

Photography: Greg Milner 

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