The legs of Princess Diana as an advertisement for a prostitute. Collage by Tom Cook, 1994.

  • Cook, Tom, 1937-2016.
Date:
[1994]
Reference:
2148895i
  • Pictures

About this work

Also known as

Artist's title : Hi Di Ho

Description

A press photograph of Princess Diana's legs mixed in a collage with a sex workder card (prostitutes' advertising card placed in telephone boxes in the street) of the same subject, in a swept and gilded frame. "... Journalist Alex Webb remembers a particular tribute made by the courtesans of London. 'I was working for GMTV's Sunday programme', Webb recalls. 'That afternoon I was near Tottenham Court Road and had to call back to the programme on a public phone box. While I spoke on the phone I noticed there were no prostitutes' cards in the phone box, just a single hand-written card with a red rose pinned to it, saying "as a tribute to our princess, the working girls of London are not advertising today".'" (Evening standard, 1 September 2017, referring to the day of Diana's funeral)

Publication/Creation

[1994]

Physical description

1 collage : newsprint and cards laid down on hardboard in integral frame ; frame 39.2 x 35 cm

Lettering

Hi Di Ho. T. Cook 1994

Notes

One collage in an installation of six rectangular collages (Wellcome Library nos. 214889i--2148895i) and eight collages on cardboard hearts (Wellcome Library no. 2155761i)

References note

Celia Jenkins, Ruth Swirsky, David Hitchcock and Patrick Whitehouse, Pros and cons: report on unauthorised advertising by prostitutes in BT payphones, University of Westminster, March 1994, p. 22 and appendix IV (Cards as a cultural artefact)

Reference

Wellcome Collection 2148895i

Languages

Where to find it

  • LocationStatusAccess
    Closed stores

    Note

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