Whore of the World

Political commentary is more often the cartoonist’s mechanism, but Dixon has found earthenware his mode for outpourings of wicked, occasionally acidic, societal criticism. Kitschy vessels play out a drama upon their surface, and here ‘Whore of the World’ offers a particularly expressive example — its design as close to grotesque cake decoration or Aardman model as sculpture. The female figure, restlessly symbolic of royalty, liberty and Western civilisation at large, seems to be enjoying herself amongst her small carnival and corgis — but the creeping inquiry of the artist seems to, “at what cost?”