Common (2013)

My novella Common was written in the City of London over the summer of 2011, immediately before the Occupy movement erupted. The book documents a crash in global markets caused by the downgrading of American debt, turbulence in the Eurozone and riots that started in London before spreading across Britain. Written as Self-Appointed Artist-in-Residence in the City of London, events in Common take place over a day: beginning at sunrise and ending at midnight. Its main protagonist is an artist who, on witnessing an injustice in the City of London, cries ‘white-hot tears’ before appointing herself as Artist-in-Residence in the Square Mile. The book combines biography with journalistic writing and fantastical imaginings. Footnotes run through the text, mimicking the rolling news on TV screens seen in lobbies throughout the City. It is in these footnotes that the politics of the work are delivered, and the City of London is examined.

There are many performances in the book, which documents a short performance and an artistic intervention of my own, alongside the performance of traders at the London Metal Exchange. Money gets to perform in a short play, while the performance of bankers and markets are represented in the two acts, Bonus the Banker Clown and Boom and Bust who perform in the Crisis Cabaret. In the book I link corporations in the City of London to the destruction of the global commons and climate change. The economic crash is linked to the austerity measures that were introduced by the government at the time.

‘The financial sector in the City of London is often viewed as an impermeable, inaccessible block, and that perception is what gives it a lot of its power. In Common, Hayley Newman has subverted that, opening the City up through richly imaginative stories that are at once creative examples of how to play with the space, and empowering political actions. I hope this book will inspire others to embark on similar transformative adventures.’
Brett Scott

Common can be purchased directly through Copy Press.
ISBN: 978-0-9553792-6-0