Self-portrait
Medium: Colour-coded meat chopping board found within a commercial kitchen in central London.
A few years ago I was working as hired staff within a commercial kitchen and I found a stack of these boards no longer in use - looking at them I found this mark making interesting as it’s a accumulation of many people cutting through meat and in turn marking this plastic surface.
Work back then was stressful and even now I find labour I’m forced into to keep myself form being homeless hard on my heart.
After lockdown I’m really finding it hard returning to work as I don’t want to continue this feeling of exploitation, I don’t want to sell my life to some business owner which would prefer to hoard money and go on holiday then pay their staff a fair wage.
I don’t want to be like my Dad who works two jobs to simply feed his family. I didn’t understand his stress when I was young, so thank you Dad and I’ve learnt now why you were an angry person, I’m sorry and I forgive you.