Laura Ford Beast and Other Works

July 19, 2011 - PRLog -- Laura Ford’s sculptures have an immensely affecting presence, often immediately attractive, tactile objects made out of a variety of textile materials.

In the recent past we have seen a life size giraffe, girls in chintz, armoured boys, a bedraggled moose and donkey boys. However, although there is usually something comforting and appealing about her familiar materials, this belies a lurking feeling, which is ambiguous, and often unsettling.

It is as if the strange, surreal characters she creates may come to life when our backs our turned like a bad dream or a spooky story.

In 2006, following its inclusion at the Venice Biennale, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery exhibited Beast as part of the Contemporary Sculpture series supported by Arts Council of Wales and the Henry Moore Foundation.

The work was so popular with our audiences that we decided to purchase it for the Permanent Collection. It was purchased in 2008 with the assistance of MLA / V&A Purchase Grant Fund, The Art Fund, and the Friends of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery. Beast and Other Works gives us the opportunity to celebrate this acquisition and offers yet another opportunity to show more recent works alongside it.

Beast and Other Works is an exhibition of three major pieces. Beast (2005) a large sack-covered cat whose solitary presence suggests a profound sense of pathos, perhaps a once powerful figure but whose spirit is now broken. Espalier Girl (2007) at first glance seems lighter, more humorous, but like all Ford’s sculptures, the espalier tradition in the title refers to trellising a tree’s growth.

The growth or reach of the girl’s arms is restricted, as if some imaginary ties were training and controlling her natural form. This exhibition also includes a major new work called Mummers (2011). Mummers consists of five shaggy brown figures, seemingly human, small in stature. Four stand upright staring at one on the floor.

This dark tableau suggests the figures have been involved in some recent incident, possibly an accident or an attack. The title Mummers refers to a form of play dating back to medieval times. In these plays the central incident is the killing and restoring to life of one of the characters. As in all her work, there are references to dreams, childhood games, rituals, performance, news reports and fiction. Always intriguing and enigmatic, Ford’s work draws us into a world where anything is possible.

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