Matthew Bishop
Matthew Corbin Bishop’s current practice references the geopolitics of the past to highlight the effects of, and the similarities between them and current political affairs.
‘The Making of the Modern World’ is a set of paintings representing the countries who came under British Colonial Rule during the period of 1920’s to 1960’s, the height to the disbandment of the Empire. The piece is a comment on Britain’s current political situation using its history as a catalyst in understanding the nature in which certain elements of Britain’s political past have transgressed to, and shaped current affairs around the globe.
The title of the piece is adapted from the final paragraph of Niall Ferguson’s book Empire which comments on the effects of British colonial rule around the world both positively and negatively.
Adapted from images taken from stamps the piece outlines many of the problems preventing the concept of a worldwide sovereignty such as the obvious sense of the ‘other’, the dominance of the ‘Super Powers’ and the dividing nature of the nation state.
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri describe, in their book ‘Empire’, how the nation state is ‘a machine that produces others, creates racial differences and raises boundaries that delimit the modern subject of sovereignty’; nowhere is this made more apparent than in ‘The Making of the Modern World’. ‘The Making of the Modern World’ highlights the shifting nature of world politics through the subtitles for each painting which represents the current identity of the former colonial countries.The dwindling of British dominance, the continuation of Empire and the question of Britain’s shift towards Europe are all brought to light.
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