Built on Others

Description

Built on Others examines the uneasy relationship between charitable intentions, financial priorities and the people an organisation exists to serve.

The artwork depicts five sculpted human heads arranged as stepping stones across a vivid green landscape, forming a pathway towards a brick house. The house suggests security, permanence and accumulated wealth, while the faces beneath it represent the people whose needs and circumstances can become the foundation of an organisation’s work.

The image was inspired by Rose Marinelli’s concern about charities that direct substantial financial resources towards acquiring property and building assets, potentially leaving less available for the charitable work they are intended to deliver. While property ownership may offer long-term security or serve a legitimate organisational purpose, the work raises a question about priorities: when resources are committed to buildings and investments, how much remains for the people who need support?

The stepping stones are central to the metaphor. Each face represents a human life, yet together they form a path towards something that stands above them. The arrangement suggests the uncomfortable possibility that the struggles of disadvantaged people can become the means through which an organisation establishes its own stability, influence or reputation.

Through its bold colours, sharply defined forms and carefully constructed landscape, Built on Others contrasts the appearance of growth and achievement with the human cost that may lie beneath it. The house becomes more than a physical structure; it represents the institutional success that can develop around a charitable mission, sometimes raising questions about whether the original purpose remains the priority.

The work does not suggest that every charity operates in this way. Instead, it asks what meaningful accountability should look like when an organisation is entrusted with resources intended to help others.