A FREE exhibition which celebrates working class culture has opened at Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry.
Hayward Gallery Touring will present After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024.
The exhibition brings working class artists who use photography to explore the nuances of life, looking at communities and the wider world.
The exhibition will see a portrait of growing up mixed race in a white working class community in Peterborough by Rene Matics and a documentation of the Northern Soul scene by Elaine Constaintine.
This year marks 35 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism – economist Francis Fukuyama wrote in the early 1990s and celebrated triumph of Western Liberal Democracy as the only viable future for global politics represented the ‘End of History’.
Johny Pitts, curator of After the End of History, said: “Developing a show with Hayward Gallery Touring, which pieces together complex and counter-intuitive expressions of working class life through the lens, has been a deeply enriching process.
“I hope the extraordinary work included offers not only a celebration of the craft and creativity of working class practitioners, but also engages, surprises and inspires a working class audience, and anyone interested in art against-the-odds.”
Brian Cass, senior curator, Hayward Gallery Touring, said the show featured a range of artists whose visually compelling images challenged the ideals of classic documentary photograph while always saying something vital about class, community and creativity.
Marguerite Nugent, cultural director, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, added: “The exhibition represents the working-class story since the Thatcher era, told through the lens of working-class artists, and offers audiences the opportunity to engage with themes about class and identity.”
