Scott King: De-Regeneration

In this solo exhibition at Spacex, Scott King presents a body of recent work that deals almost exclusively with notions of public art and its role within urban regeneration.

Presented as a series of prints, Anish and Antony Take Afghanistan, 2014, employs humour to explore the astonishing power of public art that has long been recognised by both western governments and ‘big business’ alike. With increasingly large public sculptures being commissioned to ‘regenerate’ ailing post-industrial areas, King asks, ‘what if this strategy were employed in an attempt to turn around the fortunes of a whole country?’ This work proposes a scenario in which two giants of British public art are commissioned by the United Nations in a last ditch attempt to solve the social, financial, and political problems of Afghanistan.

Other works included in the exhibition are inspired by government ideologies of regeneration in post-industrial Britain.