Cover Up (The Reveal)

“Cover Up (The Reveal)” portrays a man in his late thirties to forties wearing a tracksuit, with his arms bent upwards and his hands almost touching the collar of his hooded jumper. This sculpture is a very good example of how my work is influenced by, and seeks to comment upon, issues that effect both the United States and the United Kingdom.


In the UK the tabloid press and elements of the government tried to turn the hooded sweatshirt into a symbol of menace and criminality, with those who wore it becoming the focus of police ‘stop and search’ tactics that compounded already economically and racially biased policing policies and that left those targeted feeling harassed and persecuted in ways that were often internalised with detrimental results.

In the United States, the same garment was also artificially attached to criminality and in the tragic case of the murder of 17 year old, Trayvon Martin, it was also used as a “dog-whistle” defence by his killer when trying to invoke images of an understandable threat that required lethal force, not to mention the initial unfounded suspicions that led to Martin’s death.

Subsequently wearing a hooded sweatshirt was taken up as a symbol of solidarity among those trying to draw attention to the discrimination and prejudice that is inflicted upon so many in the
States and to highlight how the demonization of items of clothing
could make everyone a target, whilst acknowledging that this is
only a reality for people of colour. It was with this in mind that I
made the work, “Cover Up (The Reveal)” that uses the age of the
character as a way to create a sense of incongruence with the
widely accepted level of “threat”, as portrayed by certain media.
The character’s expression is also one of quiet contemplation (I
was thinking of the hooded monks I saw as a child whilst sculpting
the piece) and the hands hover up towards the hood, but do not
touch this, so as to make it ambiguous as to whether the hood has
just been lowered, or is about to be raised.