Sausage war inspires banger of an exhibition about Brexit
‘People asked why I was carrying sausages. I said because of Brexit and they laughed. Everyone gets it’
THE “sausage war” between Britain and Brussels has inspired an art exhibition in Northern Ireland examining the links between bangers, national identities and Brexit.
Brexit Sausage, which is on at Belfast’s Cultúrlann, was created in response to the conflict over UK chilled meat products, which dominated the headlines in the summer of 2021.
The Daily Telegraph was the first to report that the UK and EU were on the brink of a trade war over a Northern Ireland Protocol ban on British sausages entering the province.
Shiro Masuyama, a Japanese artist living in Belfast, was struck when reading about the sausage debacle.
The 50-year-old said: “I found it kind of funny but it also made sausages a very interesting subject.
“Everybody likes sausages. Irish people and British people. The Irish breakfast, the Northern Irish breakfast and the English breakfast always come with sausages. It makes it easy for everyone to access my work. If I talk about politics, I always include a sense of humour otherwise it is too much for people to take. It makes it easier to swallow.”
Tensions came to a boil in June last year when Sammy Wilson, a DUP MP, posed for a photograph holding a pack of sausages close to a poster declaring “Ulster is British”.
The “battle” only stopped after Maros Sefcovic, the EU negotiator who was nicknamed the “sausage king” by Michael Gove, gave British sausages an exception to the Protocol rules. It was a pyrrhic victory for British producers, who face fierce competition from topclass Northern Irish sausages while still being shut out of the EU market, which Northern Irish makers can access because of the Protocol.
Mr Masuyama believes that sausages have become an enduring symbol of Brexit. “That’s why I made this work,” he said. “Everyone was asking, ‘why are you carrying sausages or why are you sculpting sausages’?
“I said because of Brexit and they laughed. Everyone gets it.”