“Great Britain, Are You Sure?” is a textile artwork series consisting of four Union Jacks. Each is made of a different textile, one being leopard print patch work (from recycled clothes/sheets), the second made of calico and reduced stickers and the third and fourth, used and unused make up wipes. The flags play on cultural resonance and propaganda exploring the naturalised imagery of imperialism, colonisation, and monarchy through different intersecting lenses. The flags explore the nuances of how images project political ideology into subconscious identity. Each textile holds different themes and intersects: money, taste, class, labour, beauty, privilege, and consumption. By combining the reality of each symbolised textile into a symbol of British imperialism the work manifests into a new reality of ideology, to discuss British regime in a more nuanced way. The work places intersections of the British subject with the Union Jack, utilising materiality and iconography to oppose naturalised oppression in ideology. The flags are for the viewer to project their own relationships and perspectives onto within the predetermined regime of the flags themselves.
Jas has studied at Manchester School of Art, Academy of Fine Art Vienna, and Kingston School of Art. The work centres ideology in social currency, dissecting the British class system and it’s intersecting in gender, beauty, and taste. Jas works as a multidisciplinary across different mediums, specialising in performance, sculpture, and textiles.