Lucy Harrop’s project ‘Three Hearts, No Spine’ is a mixed media piece made from plywood, cardboard, clay and calico and decorated with acrylic paints and embroidery thread. It consists of an octopus positioned on top of a decorative cake, with one tentacle reaching down to play a piano next to him on the stage. Harrop chose an octopus as the main feature because as the name suggests, an octopus has three hearts and no spine. This is symbolic of how people fulminate about political issues but then sit back and do nothing to actually act on their situation. It comes from her own frustration with the current political climate. The octopus plays the piano to represent the fact that it’s all an act, that he is performing for those above him. His tentacles are wrapped in metallic string lights which seem beautiful at first glance but when turned off are replicative of barbed wire. Harrop’s intention behind this was to show that so much of our exploitation as a society is dressed up and made to look less cruel than it really is. He continues to sit and play in beautiful light, despite the wire trapping and cutting into him. The chequered floor imitates the luxury of European palaces during the renaissance and ballrooms in the baroque and rococo periods, exuding wealth and opulence and the intricately designed textile backdrop signifies both theatrics and the status symbolism of tapestries in wealthy houses. All of this goes on in the background and the attention is drawn to the octopus who represents the working class. We turn and blame each other for political problems when in fact the problem is those behind the show who live in extravagance.