Personally, I am always bemused and disappointed when artists accept these so called 'honours', which are in fact, the antithesis of art and agency. Surrendering to memories of a brutal empire..............
“The whole honours system stinks of class privilege and social snobbery […] It is a relic of feudalism, with a taint of nepotism and corruption. […] In addition, too many honours have imperial titles, such as Member of the British Empire. The Empire is rightly long gone. When it existed, hundreds of millions of people in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Pacific were colonised by Britain, ruled against their will, enslaved, exploited as cheap labour and had their lands stripped of natural resources. This sordid imperial history is not something worthy of commemoration with honours such as MBEs, OBEs and CBEs.”
(Tatchell, 2016).