Caution 2020 (2020) Haydon Kays

Hayden Kays is a newcomer to flyingleaps. His Caution 2020 (2020) couldn’t be more timely given the useless prevarication and attempted decoy distractions visited on us weekly, daily by our would-be political overlords. Kays has an impressive history of making works that deftly, economically, wittily tilt at social, political and personal fails and imperfections. His 2016 ‘USA’ wreath poignantly says it with flowers: Trump is the death of the United States of America. His small but beautifully apt urban interventions: remembrance plaques fixed to public benches that read ‘In Loving Memory of Human Contact – H.Kays 2020’ are both droll and heartbreaking. A nod to suffragette defacement of penny coins, Kays' commemorative fifty-pence piece is a perfect apercu for our times. The disingenuous and flagrant lies promising ‘Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations’ is hand stamped with the mournful tongue in cheek quip ‘I MISS BREXIT’. Since the launch of flyingleaps many of us thought we were living through the worst of times. Turns out it was just the beginning. It’s time to flip the narrative.