Woolworth Tower

This artwork featured in In Ruins (2019). 

Matthew Derbyshire’s Woolworth Tower stretched out on a blind wall of the rambling and derelict servants’ quarters, a marginal place at the confines of the park. Here, this ‘modern ruin’ creates a playful but also grating juxtaposition between the elaborate architecture of Witley Court and the harshness of the high street.

This unexpected encounter hints at the presence and possible infringement of another world, diametrically opposed to the rarefied atmosphere of the Court. Woolworth Tower suggests the parallel existence of two failed systems united by their demise. Both worlds have broken down and have done so in a spectacular manner. Like the solid mansion built by the Dudleys’ impressive fortune, the once ubiquitous high street chain seemed invulnerable until the shock of its collapse in 2008.

Matthew Derbyshire’s work critically explores the nature of consumerism and desire; he makes reference to things that most of us instantly recognise to comment on the fluctuating current economic and social climate.

Image: Matthew Darbyshire, Woolworth Tower, 2011. Digitally printed banner from original artwork. Installation view, In Ruins, Witley Court, 2019. Courtesy the artist & Zabludowicz Collection. Photo: Stefan Handy. 

 

About the artist

Matthew Darbyshire

Matthew Darbyshire exhibited in In Ruins, Witley Court, 2019.

Image: Matthew Darbyshire, Woolworth Tower, 2011. Digitally printed banner from original artwork. Installation view, In Ruins, Witley Court, 2019. Courtesy the artist & Zabludowicz Collection. Photo: Stefan Handy.