"They were the first on the street to holiday in Benidorm. There’s a bull fighting poster in the kitchen, Bill’s name printed in bold as the matador. Mavis has a framed photo of herself wearing a sombrero whilst drinking from a wine porrón." - Pete McKee
Curatorial Note
Created for Pete's 2022 Don't Adjust Your Mindset exhibition this work looks at the past to examine the present. The central house represents one of the first council houses to be bought by its owners after the Right to Buy scheme was introduced in 1980 under Margaret Thatcher’s government. This scheme gave council tenants the option of purchasing their home at a substantially discounted price. Although being able to buy one’s house is a cause for celebration, these council houses were never properly replaced. The house’s embellishments, including the Velux window, suggest that its occupants own rather than rent.
“You don’t need to know why or how the people in this house have been able to afford their place. They could have worked their way up in their jobs and earned a higher salary than most. Someone could have had a payout from a coal mining injury. Maybe they are brilliant at saving. The main thing I wanted to symbolise was what upward mobility looks like in this context and also what it looks like when people want to show they’ve moved up a gear.”
Product Options:
This image is available as an art print, produced on high-quality paper and available unframed or framed. This image is also available on canvas.
Unframed art print*
Small print: 40cm x 56cm
Large print: 50cm x 70cm
*Dimensions include a white border that surrounds the image and measures approximately 5cm.
Please note that unframed prints take 1-3 working days to be printed and an extra 1-2 working days for delivery. Unframed prints are available the same day from the McKee gallery for collection only.
Framed art print
Mounted and framed in a bespoke, glass, black angled frame. Made by the gallery's local framer.
Small framed print: 43cm x 53cm (approx)
Large framed print: 54cm x 70cm (approx)
Please note that framed prints take 7-10 working days to be made up and an extra 2-3 working days for delivery.
Canvas
Our canvases are hand-stretched onto chunky pine frames with hand-folded corners. Our McKee images are printed onto the canvases with high-definition printers to produce sharp, high-quality images.
Canvas: 31cm x 41cm
Please note our canvases can take up to 7 working days to be delivered or to be collected in store.