Nice Day Out was born from being in lock down for so long, the idea of being allowed to leave home to go and do nice things again. However, there is an element of irony in that it’s not necessarily the nicest time to actually be out with society in turmoil and the threat of coronavirus.

Much of the work included in the show portrays cartoon characters from popular culture corrupted by everyday life. Themes of social deprivation, theft, drug taking, alcohol abuse, vanity, and obesity are all explored. Inebriation from drugs or alcohol and fast food references are in a sense products of modern everyday life, cruxes used to relieve anxiety and the superficiality of capitalism.

Cartoons are used as vessels to represent how the innocence of youth has been corrupted by darker sides of life and ‘adulthood’. Instead of the purity characters like Bart once inhabited over-indulgence of drugs, alcohol and fast food has left them washed up. The over-weight characters are semi inspired by Elvis Presley – addicted to burgers and chips they are bloated versions of themselves. There is a dystopian unhappiness in their transformed selves.

In the football paintings characters are combined to channel youthful feelings of carefreeness and playing football with your mates down the park. The iconic designs of retro Manchester united shirts fused with comedy legends Beavis and Butthead immediately transports you to the 90s in a with a strong feeling of nostalgia. By juxtaposing teams and cartoons the work seeks to hark back to nice days of sticker collecting and jumpers for goal posts.

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