Untitled No. 01. On Pugin, 2019

From 2016 to 2019, London-based Irish artist Mark Duffy worked as in-house photographer for the House of Commons during the Brexit debates. The political turmoil of Brexit - experienced by Duffy as a fly on the wall in the House of Commons and as an Irish national living in London - created profound anxieties on both personal and collective levels as the future of Britain in Europe was about to undergo a historic transformation.

In 'On Pugin', Duffy visualises such multi-layered anxieties by homing in on the fixtures and fittings of Westminster Palace, designed by Augustus Pugin (1812-1852) who famously drove himself mad by his work on the Palace. In an effort to relieve his own stresses, Duffy roamed the halls of Westminster when off-duty and trained his camera on the Palace's worn down carpets. In these unravelling carpets and residues of everyday political practice - captured with a macro lens and forensic flash - Duffy saw parallels with the unravelling of British democracy and the metaphorical debris produced by Brexit, including his own worsening state of mind and the uncertain future of 3 million EU nationals living in Britain.