7 Dec 2007 to 1 Feb 2007
Mon - Sat 10-6pm
Opening: Thursday 6 December, 6.30-8.30pm
The Economist Plaza
25 St. James's Street
nearest tube: Green Park or Piccadilly Circus
SW1A 1HG
London
United Kingdom
Europe
p: +44 020 7831 1243
m:
f:
w: www.contempart.org.uk/economist/index.htm
Contemporary Art Society is pleased to present Rag and Bone by Laura Ford at the Economist Plaza
Presented in collaboration with Turner Contemporary, Margate, Houldsworth Gallery and the Economist, “Rag and Bone” is a newly created group of sculptures inspired by characters from the stories of Beatrix Potter.
Ford works with a variety of materials from fabric and other found objects to more traditional material such as plaster, and in this case bronze. The works themselves, childlike and playful, belie more serious issues as the figures stand out in the cold, homeless and hungry. Some of Potter’s best known characters are set to surprise us; Badger is searching through the dustbin for food; Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, the hedgehog, pushes her laden pram overflowing with all her belongings, Tod, the fox, wrapped in blankets, reminds us all too poignantly of the many homeless sleeping in our cities’ streets.
The sculptures comment on the parallel worlds that exist in our towns and cities: the sanitised spaces of consumerism and the homeless and disenfranchised who often exist on their margins. By casting characters from Edwardian children’s tales in contemporary urban situations, Ford asks questions about our throwaway culture while the sentimentality of Potter’s original stories is given a far darker undercurrent.
Laura Ford, one of the foremost female sculptors working in the UK, came to prominence in the British Art Show 5 2000 organised by the Hayward Gallery. Ford represented Wales at the Venice Biennale 51 in 2005. Recent exhibitions include Camden Arts Centre, the ICA, Aldrich Museum, Connecticut, and Centre of Contemporary Art, Salamanca. Collections include Tate Britain, the Arts Council, Contemporary Art Society, Government Art Collection, New Art Gallery, Walsall, and Museum of Art, Iowa. Laura Ford is represented by Houldsworth, London.
Laura Ford’s ‘Disagreeable People’ runs concurrently at the Houldsworth Gallery from 17 Nov – 12 Jan. www.houldsworth.co.uk
Private View Thursday 6th December 2007 6.30 – 8.30pm
For further information please contact the Contemporary Art Society at economist@contempart.org.uk or on 020 7831 1243
The Economist Plaza provides the only outdoor public exhibition space in Central London committed to a continuous programme of sculptural works by contemporary artists. The programme is curated by the Contemporary Art Society.
