slowgolde

//Tired of England

This is a personal project I’ve been working on in my spare time to learn a bit more about mental ray. First off the melting phone box is inspired by Banksy and his work mutilating red phone boxes; so I can’t take any credit for that part of the idea.

I had a couple of themes I wanted to try and convey in the image, the first of which is knife crime, which is an ever increasing problem nationally and a big issue in the capital. Secondly I wanted the phone box to hint at the current economic problems with credit and over lending that is crippling a lot of people in England (and globally). I thought that one of England’s most famous symbols of an age gone by would be an ideal victim to an increasingly difficult financial climate. I’d like to think the circling vultures represent the shameless banks who are still, despite all the press, giving credit cards to people who can’t afford to pay them back. Though I’m aware the image doesn’t even begin to tackle those two huge issues, it was nice to have something in the background motivating me to finish it, which is sometimes tough when work on a personal project is so sporadic.

The title is from Dirty Pretty Things:

“How can they be tired of England?
They’ll never know the England that we know
Never know where the ones with the dreams go, no
Never notice the skies with their eyes down low”

You can find a high resolution version here.