Day 8: Capella Buncher

30 January 2020

What Is Your London?

For many, the idea of London conjures up postcard pictures: the London Eye, Buckingham Palace. However, these depictions of the capital that we’re used to seeing in the media, advertising and the press are outdated. That isn’t the reality for young people living here today. London is nothing without the people that live in it, and each individual has their own story to tell so the participants of Creativity Works: Visual Storytelling were briefed with showing the world what their version of London is, to let the world see their perspective.

This is Capella's London...

And the Livin' is Easy

Jeremy Kyle’s Poverty Porn; Channel 4’s Benefits Street; Gymbox’s Chav Fighting Classes; Jacob Rees-Mogg’s assertion that Grenfell victims ‘lacked common sense’; Carole Malone’s depiction of a ‘sub (human) class’ who are incapable of feeling ‘love or guilt’. The list goes on.

Inspired by anger she feels at the way poor people are demonised in the British media, Buncher responded to the brief ‘What is your London?’ with a project that concentrates on the daily lives of her working-class family. Her desire, to subvert two-dimensional caricatures through the presentation of unique characters with complex existences. Instead of the tabloid tales of spurious sensation -antisocial behaviour, benefits scrounging and general thickness -Buncher visualises the psychological and abstract elements of belonging to a low socio-economic class.

The work focuses on strained relationships and mental illness, often disregarded the consequences of subjugation. Zooming into different family members, she explores her teenage brother’s struggle with depression, and the space he shares with their 42-year-old half-brother, Jim. She observes her father’s disillusionment and isolation, and her coping mother.