Alexander de Cadenet

Artist Alexander de Cadenet will present for the first time in the UK “Creations” – an exhibition at St Stephen Walbrook, a Sir Christopher Wren church in the heart of the financial City of London from 3rd October to 3rd November 2017.

The show is comprised of a series of life-sized, unique solid silver and gold plated hamburger sculptures that are a protest against our society’s ever increasing materialistic greed and hunger for power and status. Two of the burgers include Trump Burger 1 & Trump Burger 2.

The sculptures consist of various materialistic objects crammed in between a McDonald’s sesame seed burger bun – these watches, cars, planes, Barbie dolls, and money display varying degrees of grotesquery.

“The Life-Burgers offer a sharp critique of the society we live in and yet" - Art historian Edward Lucie-Smith

L.A. art critic Peter Frank - "We're at a moment in modern history where the excess has gotten staggeringly wretched. Oligarchs worldwide shock us and shame themselves with their conspicuous consumption - a consumption that extends to the rest of us, as consumed no less than as consumers. Alexander de Cadenet encapsulates this emerging neo-feudal order in his gilded and multi-decked burgers. For the meta-rich, the world is their fast food joint, and their appetite insatiable."

In keeping with the spiritual sanctity of the venue and in addition to the 10 new ‘Life Burger’ sculptures, there is a message of redemption in the form of a single much larger scale bronze apple with three bites taken form it. This work is designed to balance the more protesting themes explored by the burgers.

The exhibition will be taking place at St Stephen Walbrook in the City of London. The church has always had a connection with contemporary art and features an altar by Sir Henry Moore.

‘The Christian scriptures and tradition raise important questions regarding what and how much we consume. Alexander de Cadenet’s sculptures draw on the spiritual dimension in life to explore similar questions. This exhibition therefore provides a space in which reflection and review can occur.’ – Revd. Jonathan Evens, Priest-in-charge of St Stephen Walbrook.

During the exhibition, a conference entitled ‘Art Awakening Humanity’, organised by St Stephen Walbrook in partnership with Alexander de Cadenet and Watkins Mind Body Spirit Magazine, will explore further the relationship between art and the spiritual dimension. The conference will take place on Wednesday 25th October 2017.