Isolating in my hometown lead me to the extreme occasion of working on a canvas. It started as a simple idea and sketch of a waitress holding a cocktail pitcher, then grew into a surrealist structure.

 

 

I had not long been denied furlough from Wetherspoons, then after some protesting Tim (I can't remember his second name) changed his mind. This, along with researching Karl Marx and capitalism, heavily influenced the nature of this work.

 

I understand the ants, both sizes, as consumers. I thought about the cycle of C-M-C (Commodity-Money-Commodity) here and a reliant relationship between capitalist and consumer, and capitalist and labourer, specifically within pubs. The capitalist's ultimate goal is achievable through it's labourers providing a commodity to the consumer. In turn, the consumer's interest lies within obtaining the commodity. The labourer, to be employed and to be paid.  

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At that time I was reading Consuming Youth: Vampires, Cyborgs and the Culture of Consumption (2002). It explains working culture to be like a vicious machine, ordering humans to participate in a mundane yet mandatory life of service and consumption.  A labourer could also eventually become the capitalist, and a similar idea of an exhaustive cycle is considered. They develop an insatiable appetite for money and the labourer, or blue collared employee, is last on the list of priorities. 'Fruits of my (Dead) Labour' (2020) is a depiction of both, in rancid vividness.