ABSTRACT
The artist Adam Dant 1 has satirically drawn the UK Houses of Parliament as “a giant storehouse devoted to bric-a-brac”. Dant’s junkshop caricature reflects the messiness of British parliamentary history; in his sketch you can imagine papery records of arcane laws stuffed into glass-fronted bookcases, fancy-dress costumes heaped up and dumped down in corners, alcoves set aside for afternoon 64tea, swords and other armaments leaned up against a pillar, aimless functionaries standing in the aisles and broken debris everywhere. The entire scene is lit by a gigantic chandelier. This grandiose historical clutter is part of the British self-image as a democratic nation. Political action means struggling through an impossibly cobwebby labyrinth.
