Come on England
Jesse Darling, 2023

3 pedestrian barriers and welded steel, 110 x 660 x 119cm, 2023 and 4 pedestrian barriers, welded steel, wheels, 310 x 860 x 210cm, 2023. Courtesy of Galerie Molitor, Berlin.

In Jesse Darling’s Come on England (2023), metal barriers that are typically used to inhibit free movement are instead contorted into a kind of dancing procession. Using this incarnation of division and official control against itself, Darling reveals the inherent vulnerability in such power structures. The work conveys the flimsiness of controlling infrastructures with both humor and grief.