‘It’s not aspirational. It’s a perfected reality. It’s fiction, like a Facebook profile, an Instagram post . . . It works because this is a luxury to which the girls appear accustomed, nonchalantly completing their homework tasks, a rainbow of felt-tip pens dangerously strewn across the armrest. There is a tension between the banality of the everyday and an almost otherworldly elite existence, untainted by the trappings of social mediocrity. But, as inviting as this interior is, we aren’t really welcomed in. The busy girls offer no eye contact. This is their world, not ours. We aren’t active participants but voyeurs. Homework does what so much of my work sets out to — holds a mirror up to its audience, and we see in it what we bring with us — desire, admiration, audacity, revulsion and humour.’

— Michael Zavros