PAST EXHIBITION
FEATURING ARTIST
SANDBOX
Oct. 17 - 31, 2019
Whistleblower Gallery invited ceramicist Anna Barlow to be its Artist in Residence during August 2019.
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Anna, a long-time London resident, spent two weeks in Brighton observing her temporary surroundings. Fascinated by the British coastline, beach life and human interaction with the sea, the artist started to experiment with and develop a new body of work that we now have the pleasure to showcase.
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‘I used the opportunity of being based in Brighton to investigate the temporary landscapes beside the sea. Rockpools, sand formations and picnic scenes only stay the same for a few hours before the tide comes in and the scene is re-set to start again when the tide goes back out.
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I am constantly interested in the temporary. Food has been my main investigation for over 10 years as it cannot last long, but expresses so much about the moment in which it exists.
While being in Brighton, I had the chance to indulge in collecting objects on the seashore and then take it one step further and make moulds of what I found so that I could recreate remembered/imagined transitory situations.
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The beach is a fascinating place for human behaviour; we stake our claim on a patch of land, mark it with a picnic blanket, set up a temporary outdoor home in which we eat and sleep.
Sandcastles are some of our first attempts to create a civilisation only to be destroyed in some way either by fellow humans or nature, and our constant desire to own and collect draws us to pick up shells, stones and washed up objects, precious in the moment but to become lacklustre when brought home away from the shore.
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Anna Barlow is a young ceramicist born in Bristol and currently living and working in London.
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Anna has a BA (Hons) in Ceramics by the Bath Spa University College and has had her work shown in galleries across the world.
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Interested in the rituals of food, Anna's sculptures capture fleeting moments in the life of decaying ice-creams. 'I am fascinated by the way we eat food, especially by the rituals around celebrational or indulgent treats that have developed; by the way they are assembled, displayed and then eaten. I am also interested in how food tells a story of the people and place it’s in', says the artist.
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Using solely clay, porcelain and glaze, Anna spent 8 years experimenting and researching the right techniques and materials that would allow her sculptures to look as close to real food stuffs as possible; her sumptuous glazes have been amazing her viewers since. It is hard not to view her work without feeling your teeth ache, and her rich colours and finishes leave it up to the viewers to imagine the flavours of her ceramics.
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Anna's pieces have been featured in numerous publications such as The Independent, Ceramic Review, Centre of Ceramic Art, Red Bird and BBC, amongst others.