Very Merry Complicated Christmas (2021)
Limited edition (50) pack of 10 Christmas cards, sold online and in The Anxiety Shop
This series of Christmas cards examines the strange emotional contradictions of Christmas. While the holiday is widely celebrated as a time of joy, family and generosity, for many people it can also be a period marked by anxiety, obligation and difficult family dynamics.
Each card depicts an uncomfortable or taboo situation, alcoholism, meat consumption, sexual violence, or the strange feeling of returning to a hometown where old identities and tensions resurface. Rendered in bright colours and simple line drawings, the works use humour and cartoon logic to speak plainly about experiences that are usually kept quiet during the festive season.
The cards also function as small provocations. By gifting one to a relative or friend, the sender is invited to gently broach subjects that are often avoided within families.
Many people responded to the cards with recognition, saying they felt seen in their experience of a holiday that does not always match its cheerful cultural script. In this sense, the work points to a quieter truth: that complicated families, unresolved histories and mixed feelings are far more common than the glossy imagery of Christmas suggests.