When 25 year old Elizabeth ascended to the throne of the United Kingdom in 1953, she was wearing the wealth of nations. She wore a robe of state, a chain of office, earrings, a necklace and a bracelet. She held the rod and sceptre and an orb, both encrusted with jewels from various lands around the world.

 

The British Crown of State is valued at 21 million and the dress 1.1 million GBP. It feels obscene to think of this concentration of wealth. The absurdity is that they are not owned by this icon, the current Queen of Britain, but by the state. Yet only the Queen can use them for their intended purposes. The value of these items is not the jewels or the platinum, the true worth is the power they represent.

 

This piece is a representative shows the physical symbols of power, wealth, control and monarchy, full of ritualistic meaning, recreated in worthless, leftover paper.