Come along and discover LEVELLING UP, Jamie Cooper's latest body of work in Fruitmarket Warehouse
Jamie Cooper’s plastic sculptures mimic the brand logos and the kind of illuminated signs found in shopping centres, yet in his work these references have become strangely morphed and animated. His latest sculptures are exhibited here in the Warehouse, in an immersive installation that includes newly made sound and film pieces. The show’s title LEVELLING UP is a reference both to the broken promises of politicians to disenfranchised working class communities, and to computer games, often seen as the preserve of slackers and scroungers, but reclaimed here as a site of resistance.
Cooper participated in the 2023 Fruitmarket exhibition Poor Things, brought together by artists Emma Hart and Dean Kenning, in which his sculpture Nomnom embodied his idea of ‘cosmic debt’; ‘the idea stemmed from when I was working at Virgin Media. The more I worked there, the poorer I got because they weren’t paying me enough to travel. So, I got into a lot of credit card debt and then, fast forward ten years, I’ve still got it, even when you think you’re getting somewhere. You still have to deal with this debt and I was thinking, is this what it’s going to be like forever? I had the determination to make something out of that scenario, to turn it around’. LEVELLING UP critiques this reality with its own currency: giant plaster coins minted with satirical texts such as ‘fit for work’ or ‘austerity respawn’ that seem to lead the sculptures around the floor and up the walls.