There’s no official connection with Charlie Brooker’s Netflix anthology; but this exhibition riffs off similar themes of alienation, political discontent and 21st-century angst via satirical works from contempory artists. New exhibition Black Mirror looks at art’s role in social satire, and how political uncertainty has influenced art of recent years.
Featuring the work of 26 artists, using a range of media including collage, caricatures, photography and installation, the exhibition shows how satire can provide both light relief as well as unsettling commentary on the climate of modern politics and society.
Works vary from the personal to the political, including Bedwyr Williams’ humorous take on the old adage “Walk a Mile in My Shoes”, where he literally gets visitors to try on size 13 shoes, Turner Prize nominee Richard Billingham’s confrontational photography of his working class parents in his Ray’s A Laugh Series, Chilean sculptor Alejandra Prieto, who explores the poverty and luxury of industry by transforming rejected lumps of coal into beautiful objects, and Jessica Craig-Martin’s voyeuristic and candid close-up photographs of high society hedonism.
At a time of social unease, Black Mirror emphasises the importance of art and satire in looking at power structures, questioning societal norms and attitudes, and visualising political unrest.
Black Mirror will be on view at Saatchi Gallery until 13 January 2019.
