Olivia Sterling highlights the visual codes of class and race in tightly cropped compositions featuring body parts, food, and wine bottles. In Accidents Will Happen (2021), a custard-pie food fight is in full swing, with jam and cream flying and a dog under the table looking forward to getting a taste. An accusatory pointing finger in the composition stands out, and an element of conflict is present. Sterling's irreverent image is about the ideals of 'whiteness' and the nuclear family, here upended through a riotous rejection of norms of behaviour. The stylised cartoon hands echo those in the paintings of Philip Guston, while the unflinching satirical edge to Sterling’s work connects to the British tradition of William Hogarth.