The Morning After

Flo Brooks (1987 - )

collage and acrylic on paper

2022

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  • About the work
    Location
    Country: UK
    City: London
    Place: HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road

    This is one of a series of works by Flo Brooks that, in their cut-out form, echo the format of comic books, theatre sets or commercial displays. The viewer is offered glimpses or impressions of characters and places, which all work together to convey a sense of both familiarity and isolation. Brooks’ use of the irregular frame of the work, with both collage and acrylic paint, alongside the fragments of narratives within these, help to break down hierarchical ways of looking. Multiple stories and characters exist in one space, composed in such a way that none has visual precedence over the other. As a member of the trans community, Brooks is interested in boundaries and thresholds – in the spaces that these create and their impact on our identities. These collaged, cut-out shapes and the partial stories within them articulate a sense of fluid narratives. ‘My work,’ says Brooks ‘is an attempt to capture the “in betweenness” and instability of quotidian life in all its chaotic messiness, and expose the very shifting nature of self and society’.


  • About the artist
    Flo Brooks was born in Exeter. His work draws on his upbringing in the rural southwest of England as well as his experiences in queer and trans communities. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions including at Spike Island, Bristol (2023); Tramway, Glasgow (2022); and CCA, Brighton (2021). He completed a public commission in 2023 as part of the Clapham Public Realm programme in London and has had work included in group exhibitions at Auction House, Redruth, Cornwall (2022); MIRROR, Plymouth; Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange, Cornwall; Somerset House, London (all 2021); Hayward Gallery, London (2019); Jerwood Space, London and Glasgow International (2018).
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    Places
    Subjects
    Materials & Techniques
    acrylic (paint), paper (as artists material), collage, acrylic painting
  • Details
    Artist
    Flo Brooks (1987 - )
    Title
    The Morning After
    Date
    2022
    Medium
    collage and acrylic on paper
    Dimensions
    height: 55.0 cm; width: 42.0 cm; depth: 4.0 cm
    Acquisition
    Purchased from Project Native Informant, March 2022
    Provenance
    Project Native Informant, London UK; from whom purchased by UK Government Art Collection, 31 March 2022
    GAC number
    19087