We take the democratic vote as a fundamental human right. It wasn't always like this. On Monday 16th August 1819, frustrated and in despair due to the economic conditions and political exclusion of the working classes, a crowd of up to 80,000 people gathered at St Peters field in Manchester. Most had come on foot from Manchester and the surrounding areas to attend the peaceful meeting. Shortly after the speakers arrived to address the crowd, the magistrates in attendance gave the order for the horse mounted yeomanry, armed with sabres, to go into the crowd and arrest the speakers. The carnage that followed resulted in the deaths of up to 18 people attending the meeting with many hundreds more wounded. Many of the deaths and injuries were caused by sabre wounds.

My visual work on this project, although emerging from research in to Peterloo, offers an alternative, contemporary perspective, reimagining the events of 1819 in the early 90s rave scene. When considering the key themes embedded in Peterloo, such as exclusion and inequality, how much have we, as a society, progressed in the 200 years since Peterloo?