Suspect Signage Margate 

The works installed on Northdown Road in Margate are developed from a piece of work called ‘We Must Not Be Extreme’ from the ‘Suspect Objects Suspect Subjects’ exhibition.

The signs are placed at:

• Clayspace Studios which is a social enterprise set up to offer a professional ceramics studio space and teaching facility.
• 101 Social Club which is a free membership club and a community space for people to meet and use.
• Cliffs, an independent shop and café.
• Margate Arts Club, a arts club for people connected with or interested in art, music, literature or science.

The text in the signs are statements by the artist which are responses to the rise of racism in society. Some are subversive comments based on messages in daily life and advertising. Others are designed to be responses to racism.

One of the signs contains text by from A. Sivanandan, a leading intellectual and who changed the way Britain thought about race. ‘We are here because you were there’ is an aphorism that transcends generations, currently pertinent to the geography and demographic of Margate and the UK.