While working with ephemeral objects such as fridge magnets, Lu became hyper-focused on how people value different objects within their homes. As an artist producing fridge magnets, they were technically artworks but not necessarily understood or treated as such.
This limited-edition magnet was created for the commission and responds to ideas of working-classness and taste, especially the hierarchy of good and bad taste and who defines it. It features symbols and tropes specific to Southend-on-Sea, including Prittlewell Priory’s medieval door, fish and chips signage, Never Never Land castles, the Balmoral Tower Blocks forming part of the skyline, the Curly Bridge in Leigh-on-Sea, and palm trees and ferns referencing The Shrubbery and the seafront.
The imagery is drawn from a broader sculptural series that embeds vintage postcards and letters into larger forms, but here it is distilled into a small, quotidian object that sits on the surface of a fridge. This magnet places personal and collective memory into everyday domestic space, inviting reflection on value, nostalgia and the hierarchies we attach to objects.
The commission has been generously funded by Creative Estuary, Southend-on-Sea City Council and Art Fund.