Elleanna Chapman
Discipline:
Artist
Location:
London
ABOUT:
I am a communist and artist. I explore the political potential of art to catalyse class struggle, framing my call for revolution through the kitsch and kitty-tastic — contrasting militancy with the adorable. Working across media – including installation, video, print, and social practice – I attempt to bring the true nature of class society to the fore, delivered to the viewer via a litter of scrumptiously cute kittens or the glittering hands of a diva.
Underpinning my work, I am a member of the Revolutionary Communist International. Consequently, I engage with working-class histories, propaganda strategies, and current affairs. I assert that my political organisation is in and of itself a social practice that both justifies and informs my studio practice.
Drawing from my love for so-called ‘low art’, I look to disrupt taste hierarchies. I collage found material together with my creations, stealing from society’s expansive image (and pop) culture as a basis for class-driven subversion. Well-researched thievery is becoming common as I collect images of pop divas, low-resolution kittens, and revolutionary icons alike to convey my communist agenda. I hope to create a new form of agitprop that will have you looking twice – when the revolutionary is put forward vis-à-vis the fabulous and the familiar, the demand to oust capitalism altogether does not appear so outlandish, after all.


WORKS:




