Sense the Union Jack

Description

At first glance, the familiar geometry of the Union Jack anchors this piece in place and politics. But that stability is quickly disrupted — invaded by stencilled word-pairs that demand closer inspection. HEAR & LISTEN, LEARN & KNOW, TOUCH & FEEL: these aren’t just senses, they’re tensions — subtle shifts in meaning that reveal how language mediates experience.

Each word is carefully chosen, drawn from Steit’s broader senses project, which explores dualities like chaos/control, organic/industrial, and isolation/connection. Here, the focus is on sensory perception — but also on how culture frames that perception. The British flag becomes not just a backdrop, but a statement: a shared identity composed of incomplete understandings.

The use of spray paint and graffiti stencils nods to rebellion and immediacy — public, unfiltered expressions layered over sanctioned symbols. Paint splatters in gold, red, and blue further unsettle the image, as if the piece is in motion or mid-transformation.

Ultimately, Sense the Union Jack doesn’t offer answers — it interrupts. It unsettles the inherited certainties of empire: the prescribed ways of seeing, hearing, and knowing that once underpinned colonial rule. By urging viewers to look again, to listen more deeply, to smell, taste, touch, and learn beyond surface understanding, the work resists the tidy narratives imposed by imperial history. In a world still shaped by those legacies — fractured, plural, and contested — perhaps sensing is the most honest, embodied form of connection we have left.

Created in Derbyshire, UK, June 2025.

Original artwork specifications

• Stretched Canvas
• Glossy Spray paint Gold & Multi colour
• Varnish
• 60 x 60 x 1.5 cm
• Unique artwork

Canvas may have a slight size deviation up to a few millimetres.