In Shakespeare’s 1601 poem, The Phoenix and the Turtle — known to some as the first great metaphysical poem — the two protagonists die. Interpretations vary but it is assumed that the poem charts an unrealised love affair between two birds — a phoenix and a turtledove — who represent truth and beauty. Its tragic end is countered with a hopeful prayer that this ideal union will re-emerge — like a phoenix from the ashes.

A fattened cow, with disturbingly bulging udders, from whose back protrudes an urban metropolis and around which Super Mario’s Rainbow Road twists and turns, is upon the mothership. The ‘Mothership’ is an American Apparel (or is it American Airlines?) space rocket and hovers to a pulsing and somewhat ominous soundtrack against a champagne sky.