Laura Ford
Encyclopedia
Laura Ford is a Welsh
artist and sculptor
who has exhibited her work at the British Art Show
and represented Wales at Venice Biennale
. She is recognised internationally as one of the UK's leading sculptors and is included in important museum collections worldwide
, Wales in 1961. She was born into a family of Welsh showmen who travelled the fairgrounds of Wales and South West England; wintering at her grandfather Charles Yeates' farm, a former zoo, near Cardiff. As a child travelling on the fairground, Ford has said that her favourite sideshow
attraction was a "huge figure of Frankenstein
's monster". She recalled, to The Daily Telegraph
in 2003, that the figure would leap out of the booth and chase her, noting:
She studied at Bath Academy of Art (1978–82)which included a highly influential term of study at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York City. Completing her Bachelor's degree with a First, she was included in the Institute of Contemporary Arts
New Contemporaries Exhibition at London's Serpentine Gallery
in the summer of 1983. Her Master's degree followed at the Chelsea School of Art (1982–83) where she met her partner, fellow sculptor, Andrew Sabin
. Ford and Sabin toured, traveled and lectured on art in India for a year in 1985.
Thus far in her career Ford has shown her work at over 20 different solo venues and over 45 group exhibitions. Numerous different organisations have collections of her work, including: the Tate Gallery
in London, Penguin Books
and Prudential
. Elspeth and Imogen Turner Collection (Lancashire,UK)
Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent; National Museums and Galleries of Wales; Museum of Modern Art, University of Iowa; Arts Council of Great Britain
; Contemporary Art Society; Unilever plc; Penguin Books; Government Collection; the Oldham Art Gallery and Dandara Jersey 'Percentage for Art' in the Channel Islands and most recently a solo show at the Frederic Meijer Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan
in 2005, Ford admitted to being influenced by surrealism
, with the filmmakers Jean Cocteau
and David Lynch
being at of the forefront of the interest.
. It was one of a series of sculptures built around the idea of costumed animals. Much of the Moose was covered in ordinary garments and general domestic DIY items consisting of plaster, chicken wire, scaffolding
poles and grey fabric.
Ford and fellow artist Carol Rhodes were featured on a video edition of Art in Scotland in 2001. Ford described her work Chintz Girls as being inspired by the oppressive atmospheres of middle-class lounges.
In 2003, Ford exhibited Headthinkers at the Houldsworth Gallery in London's Cork Street
. The show consisted of several child-sized beings wearing "pensioner
"-esque clothing with large ceramic donkey
heads resting on white platforms. Their clothes consisted of dark coloured jumpers, wool trousers and tartan
slippers. The boys appear to be unable to support themselves because of their oversized ass heads. The eight 44 inches (111.8 cm) figures, made from steel, fabric, plaster and ceramic heads, were for sale at £10,000 each.
One such figure was a centrepiece of Sleeping and Dreaming, a collaborative exhibition between the Deutsches Hygene-Museum, Dresden and the Wellcome Collection
, London in 2008., and has now been acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum
, London.
In 2005 Ford joined eight other 'emerging and midcareer British artists' at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Connecticut
, USA, in a group show entitled "Into My World: Recent British Sculpture,". Other featured artists were Matt Franks, Roger Hiorns, James Ireland, Jim Lambie, Mike Nelson, Mariele Neudecker, David Thorpe and Saskia Olde Wolbers. Ford's "Headthinkers" was positioned in the museum's grand reception area which was specially turned into exhibition space for the display. Her later installation, "Wreckers," was positioned the adjoining hallway.
Ford represented her native Wales in the Venice Biennale in the summer of 2005
Armour Boys, a series of pieces made during a residency at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop, consisted of a group of child-size knights in armour, seemingly fallen in battle. The work was first shown at the 2006 Edinburgh Art Festival
at the Royal Scottish Academy
, Edinburgh. Critic, Rosie Lesso, of The List, called the exhibition "surprisingly underwhelming". Further noting that the boys were "twisted and broken [...] drawing attention to the many youths caught up in war today". Armour Boys has been further exhibited at Roche Court Sculpture Park in Wiltshire UK, and Harewood House a stately home in Leeds, England. exhibited at Skulptur Pilane, Sweden during the summer of 2008.
The Contemporary Art Society presented Ford's Rag and Bone exhibition at the Economist Plaza in late 2007 and early 2008. Ford sculpted the pieces, which were based on characters from the stories and illustrations of Beatrix Potter
, to show "the sanitised spaces of consumerism
and the homeless and disenfranchised who often exist on their margins". The pieces in the exhibition included Badger
, a badger, going through a bin, Mrs Tiggywinkle, a hedgehog
, pushing a pram
full of her belongings, and Tod, the fox, wrapped in blankets, representing homelessness
.
Rag and Bone was displayed in Tilburg, Netherlands in 2008 as part of the "Lustwarande 08 – Wanderland" group exhibition at The
Fundament Foundation Tilburg.
Her bronze work from Rag and Bone, Fox with Blanket was acquired by the City of Stockholm and is on permanent display in the city centre
In 2008 she produced new work in bronze for her first solo exhibition at the New Art Centre, including three fairy-tale espaliered trees with human feet and legs, cast in bronze.
In 2009 Ford was commissioned to produce a site-specific work 'The Weeping Girls' for Jupiter Artland sculpture park near Edinburgh. Reviewed in The Spectator
in July 2010, the work was described variously in The Spectator
as "Menacing is a word that could be applied to much of the work at Jupiter Artland. Weeping Girls by Laura Ford is a very disquieting work, a series of figures set in different poses amongst the trees, each a little girl hiding her face behind a ropey curtain of thick hair. The figures are somehow reminiscent of an unsettling memorial from a Victorian graveyard", commenting Claudia Massie in August, whilst Nicola Mc Cartney adds for the September issue that Ford’s "Weeping Girls haunt the forest’s unsuspecting corners so that one never feels quite alone."'
The Weeping Girls are simultaneously being, along with Lion displayed at Skulptur Pilane, Sweden 2010, Sweden
Ford was formerly represented by Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London from 2000. She has had several solo exhibitions with Houldsworth including Desperados 2001; Headthinkers 2003; Wreckers 2004; and Disagreeable People 2008
Ford is now solely represented by Christian Scheffel of Galerie Scheffel
in Bad Homburg, Germany
In addition in 1999 Laura Ford's Stump Girl, part of the same trio, was stolen from the British High Commission in Ottawa.
"The theft of a bronze sculpture of a humanoid tree from outside the British High Commission in Ottawa
has stumped police and diplomats alike, with hopes of a ransom demand fading as weeks pass without a clue". Stump Girl, a one-metre-tall statue with a stump torso and girlish, ruby-slippered legs, was abducted overnight in November from its place among a trio of sculptures outside the downtown mission.
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
artist and sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
who has exhibited her work at the British Art Show
British Art Show
The British Art Show is a major survey exhibition organised every five years to showcase contemporary British Art. The current exhibition in the series, referred to as BAS6, is touring a number of major cities within England in 2005 and 2006. Each time it is organised, the show tours to three UK...
and represented Wales at Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
. She is recognised internationally as one of the UK's leading sculptors and is included in important museum collections worldwide
Early life and career
Ford was born in CardiffCardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
, Wales in 1961. She was born into a family of Welsh showmen who travelled the fairgrounds of Wales and South West England; wintering at her grandfather Charles Yeates' farm, a former zoo, near Cardiff. As a child travelling on the fairground, Ford has said that her favourite sideshow
Sideshow
In America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair or other such attraction.- Types of attractions :There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions:...
attraction was a "huge figure of Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
's monster". She recalled, to The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
in 2003, that the figure would leap out of the booth and chase her, noting:
You knew perfectly well that it would happen, but it was always incredibly exciting. It is that uncertainty I am aiming for in my work.
She studied at Bath Academy of Art (1978–82)which included a highly influential term of study at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York City. Completing her Bachelor's degree with a First, she was included in the Institute of Contemporary Arts
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
New Contemporaries Exhibition at London's Serpentine Gallery
Serpentine Gallery
The Serpentine Gallery is an art gallery in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, central London. It focuses on modern and contemporary art. The exhibitions, architecture, education and public programmes attract approximately 750,000 visitors a year...
in the summer of 1983. Her Master's degree followed at the Chelsea School of Art (1982–83) where she met her partner, fellow sculptor, Andrew Sabin
Andrew Sabin
Andrew Sabin is an English sculptor and visual artist working in London.-Life and Work:Sabin was trained at the Chelsea School of Art .-Current projects:His latest project The Coldstones Cut,...
. Ford and Sabin toured, traveled and lectured on art in India for a year in 1985.
Thus far in her career Ford has shown her work at over 20 different solo venues and over 45 group exhibitions. Numerous different organisations have collections of her work, including: the Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
in London, Penguin Books
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
and Prudential
Prudential plc
Prudential plc is a multinational financial services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom.Prudential's largest division is Prudential Corporation Asia, which has over 15 million customers across 13 Asian markets and is a top-three provider of life insurance in mainland China, Hong...
. Elspeth and Imogen Turner Collection (Lancashire,UK)
Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent; National Museums and Galleries of Wales; Museum of Modern Art, University of Iowa; Arts Council of Great Britain
Arts Council of Great Britain
The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. The Arts Council of Great Britain was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England , the Scottish Arts Council, and the Arts Council of Wales...
; Contemporary Art Society; Unilever plc; Penguin Books; Government Collection; the Oldham Art Gallery and Dandara Jersey 'Percentage for Art' in the Channel Islands and most recently a solo show at the Frederic Meijer Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Influences
In an interview with David Lomas at the Manchester Art GalleryManchester Art Gallery
Manchester Art Gallery is a publicly-owned art gallery in Manchester, England. It was formerly known as Manchester City Art Gallery.The gallery was opened in 1824 and today occupies three buildings, the oldest of which - designed by Sir Charles Barry - is Grade I listed and was originally home to...
in 2005, Ford admitted to being influenced by surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, with the filmmakers Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
and David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
being at of the forefront of the interest.
Recent and current work
Some of her best-known sculptures are primarily constructed in fabric, with unidentifiable characters (consisting of humans and animals) partaking in different actions. In 1999, one of Ford's creations, entitled Moose, was featured in the Tate GalleryTate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
. It was one of a series of sculptures built around the idea of costumed animals. Much of the Moose was covered in ordinary garments and general domestic DIY items consisting of plaster, chicken wire, scaffolding
Scaffolding
Scaffolding is a temporary structure used to support people and material in the construction or repair of buildings and other large structures. It is usually a modular system of metal pipes or tubes, although it can be from other materials...
poles and grey fabric.
Ford and fellow artist Carol Rhodes were featured on a video edition of Art in Scotland in 2001. Ford described her work Chintz Girls as being inspired by the oppressive atmospheres of middle-class lounges.
In 2003, Ford exhibited Headthinkers at the Houldsworth Gallery in London's Cork Street
Cork Street
Cork Street is a street in Mayfair in the West End of London, England. It is very well known in the British art world for the commercial art galleries that dominate the street. It is located to the north of Burlington House, which houses the Royal Academy, a leading British art institution...
. The show consisted of several child-sized beings wearing "pensioner
Pensioner
In common parlance, a pensioner is a person who has retired, and now collects a pension. This is a term typically used in the United Kingdom and Australia where someone of pensionable age may also be referred to as an 'old age pensioner', or OAP. In the United States, the term retiree is more...
"-esque clothing with large ceramic donkey
Donkey
The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...
heads resting on white platforms. Their clothes consisted of dark coloured jumpers, wool trousers and tartan
Tartan
Tartan is a pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in many other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Scotland. Scottish kilts almost always have tartan patterns...
slippers. The boys appear to be unable to support themselves because of their oversized ass heads. The eight 44 inches (111.8 cm) figures, made from steel, fabric, plaster and ceramic heads, were for sale at £10,000 each.
One such figure was a centrepiece of Sleeping and Dreaming, a collaborative exhibition between the Deutsches Hygene-Museum, Dresden and the Wellcome Collection
Wellcome Collection
The Wellcome Collection is a museum at 183 Euston Road, London, displaying an unusual mixture of medical artifacts and original artworks exploring 'ideas about the connections between medicine, life and art'. The Collection comprises three public exhibition spaces, an auditorium, events space, cafe...
, London in 2008., and has now been acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
, London.
In 2005 Ford joined eight other 'emerging and midcareer British artists' at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
, USA, in a group show entitled "Into My World: Recent British Sculpture,". Other featured artists were Matt Franks, Roger Hiorns, James Ireland, Jim Lambie, Mike Nelson, Mariele Neudecker, David Thorpe and Saskia Olde Wolbers. Ford's "Headthinkers" was positioned in the museum's grand reception area which was specially turned into exhibition space for the display. Her later installation, "Wreckers," was positioned the adjoining hallway.
Ford represented her native Wales in the Venice Biennale in the summer of 2005
Armour Boys, a series of pieces made during a residency at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop, consisted of a group of child-size knights in armour, seemingly fallen in battle. The work was first shown at the 2006 Edinburgh Art Festival
Edinburgh Art Festival
The Edinburgh Art Festival is an annual visual arts festival, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, during August to coincide with the Edinburgh Festival. The Art Festival was established in 2004, and receives public funding from the Scottish Arts Council. The current Festival Director is Joanne S...
at the Royal Scottish Academy
Royal Scottish Academy
The Royal Scottish Academy is a Scottish organisation that promotes contemporary Scottish art. Founded in 1826, as the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts, the RSA maintains a unique position in Scotland as an independently funded institution led by eminent artists and...
, Edinburgh. Critic, Rosie Lesso, of The List, called the exhibition "surprisingly underwhelming". Further noting that the boys were "twisted and broken [...] drawing attention to the many youths caught up in war today". Armour Boys has been further exhibited at Roche Court Sculpture Park in Wiltshire UK, and Harewood House a stately home in Leeds, England. exhibited at Skulptur Pilane, Sweden during the summer of 2008.
The Contemporary Art Society presented Ford's Rag and Bone exhibition at the Economist Plaza in late 2007 and early 2008. Ford sculpted the pieces, which were based on characters from the stories and illustrations of Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter
Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist best known for her imaginative children’s books featuring animals such as those in The Tale of Peter Rabbit which celebrated the British landscape and country life.Born into a privileged Unitarian...
, to show "the sanitised spaces of consumerism
Consumerism
Consumerism is a social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods and services in ever greater amounts. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen...
and the homeless and disenfranchised who often exist on their margins". The pieces in the exhibition included Badger
Badger
Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the weasel family, Mustelidae. There are nine species of badger, in three subfamilies : Melinae , Mellivorinae , and Taxideinae...
, a badger, going through a bin, Mrs Tiggywinkle, a hedgehog
Hedgehog
A hedgehog is any of the spiny mammals of the subfamily Erinaceinae and the order Erinaceomorpha. There are 17 species of hedgehog in five genera, found through parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and New Zealand . There are no hedgehogs native to Australia, and no living species native to the Americas...
, pushing a pram
Baby transport
Baby transport consists of devices for transporting and carrying infants. A "child carrier" or "baby carrier" is a device used to carry an infant or small child on the body of an adult...
full of her belongings, and Tod, the fox, wrapped in blankets, representing homelessness
Homelessness
Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...
.
Rag and Bone was displayed in Tilburg, Netherlands in 2008 as part of the "Lustwarande 08 – Wanderland" group exhibition at The
Fundament Foundation Tilburg.
Her bronze work from Rag and Bone, Fox with Blanket was acquired by the City of Stockholm and is on permanent display in the city centre
In 2008 she produced new work in bronze for her first solo exhibition at the New Art Centre, including three fairy-tale espaliered trees with human feet and legs, cast in bronze.
In 2009 Ford was commissioned to produce a site-specific work 'The Weeping Girls' for Jupiter Artland sculpture park near Edinburgh. Reviewed in The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
in July 2010, the work was described variously in The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
as "Menacing is a word that could be applied to much of the work at Jupiter Artland. Weeping Girls by Laura Ford is a very disquieting work, a series of figures set in different poses amongst the trees, each a little girl hiding her face behind a ropey curtain of thick hair. The figures are somehow reminiscent of an unsettling memorial from a Victorian graveyard", commenting Claudia Massie in August, whilst Nicola Mc Cartney adds for the September issue that Ford’s "Weeping Girls haunt the forest’s unsuspecting corners so that one never feels quite alone."'
The Weeping Girls are simultaneously being, along with Lion displayed at Skulptur Pilane, Sweden 2010, Sweden
Ford was formerly represented by Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London from 2000. She has had several solo exhibitions with Houldsworth including Desperados 2001; Headthinkers 2003; Wreckers 2004; and Disagreeable People 2008
Ford is now solely represented by Christian Scheffel of Galerie Scheffel
in Bad Homburg, Germany
Exhibitions
- 2011 'Laura Ford: Beast and Other Works'Glynn Vivian Art Gallery Swansea 17 June – 4 September 2011
- 2011 'Ceramic Connections' Oriel Davies Gallery, Powys, Wales
- 2011 'Tell it to the Trees' Croft Castle, Yarpole, Herefordshire
- 2011 LOCWS International, Swansea 16 April – 13 May http://www.locwsinternational.com/?p=2997 http://www.locwsinternational.com/?p=2997
- 2011 Laura Ford, Masayuki Koorida, David Nash, Jaume Plensa, Timm Ulrichs, Ludwig Museum, Deutschherrenhaus Koblenz, Germany. To be integrated into the Bundesgartenschau 2011
- 2011 Laura Ford, Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture ParkFrederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture ParkFrederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park is a botanical garden and outdoor sculpture park located in Grand Rapids Township, Michigan in Kent County. Commonly referred to as Meijer Gardens, it has quickly become one of the most significant sculpture experiences in the Midwest and an emerging...
, Grand Rapids, Michigan (solo show)Laura Ford: "Actual, Factual Fables" 3 June – Aug 21 - 2010/11 Pallant House GalleryPallant House GalleryPallant House Gallery is an art gallery in Chichester, West Sussex, England. It houses one of the best collections of 20th century British art in the world....
, Chichester Contemporary Eye: Crossovers - 2010 Sculpture in Pilane Sweden, Weeping Girls
- 2010 The Dartboard for Witches at Aberystwyth Arts CentreAberystwyth Arts CentreAberystwyth Arts Centre is one of Wales' busiest and largest arts centres, based on Aberystwyth University's Penglais campus Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales...
Recently described by Robert Clark in the Guardian Laura Ford's neatly frocked little girl paddling forlornly in her wellies has her head shrouded in a looming plaster cloud. - 2010 Harewood HouseHarewood HouseHarewood House is a country house located in Harewood , near Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is a member of Treasure Houses of England, a marketing consortium for nine of the foremost stately homes in England...
, Leeds 'Twenty One' Joint show - 2010 Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh; Weeping Girls The curiously neglected sculptor Laura Ford creates a creepy copse full of life-size polychromed bronze figures of weeping little girls, and the sense of foreboding... Richard Dorment, The Telegraph
- 2010 London Elephant Parade; Wooly Mammouth
- 2010 Laura Ford, Museum und Galerie im Prediger, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany (solo)
- 2010 The Art of the Fairy Tales, Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
- 2009 Blickachsen 7, Galerie Scheffel, Bad Homburg, Frankfurt
- 2009 Laura Ford, Altana Kulturstiftung im Sinclair-Haus, Bad Homburg, Germany (solo)
- 2009 Pandamonium Exhibition for WWFWorld Wide Fund for NatureThe World Wide Fund for Nature is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States...
, London. - 2009 'Glory Glory' solo show at Durham Art Gallery
- 2009 Sculpture at Pilane, Sweden
- 2009 'Percentage for Art' Danadara Jersey Art
- 2008 'Disagreeable People' Pippy Houldsworth, London
Obscura
Three bronze sculptures, Nature Girls were stolen from Surrey Water, Rotherhithe in October 2008. They remain missing.In addition in 1999 Laura Ford's Stump Girl, part of the same trio, was stolen from the British High Commission in Ottawa.
"The theft of a bronze sculpture of a humanoid tree from outside the British High Commission in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
has stumped police and diplomats alike, with hopes of a ransom demand fading as weeks pass without a clue". Stump Girl, a one-metre-tall statue with a stump torso and girlish, ruby-slippered legs, was abducted overnight in November from its place among a trio of sculptures outside the downtown mission.
Further reading
- 'Laura Ford' by Mark Gisbourne ISBN 978-3-926546-54-8
- A Stranger Here Myself: Laura Ford and Jacqueline Poncelet, exhibition catalogue, Camden Arts CentreCamden Arts CentreCamden Arts Centre is a contemporary visual art gallery, dedicated to engaging living artists from across the world. Positioning the artist at the centre of the programme, Camden Arts Centre strives to involve the public in the ideas and work of today's artists.The exhibition and education...
, 1998, reproduced (colour) [p. 22] - New Art from Britain, exhibition catalogue, Kunstraum Innsbruck, Innsbruck 1998, pp. 20–3
- British Art ShowBritish Art ShowThe British Art Show is a major survey exhibition organised every five years to showcase contemporary British Art. The current exhibition in the series, referred to as BAS6, is touring a number of major cities within England in 2005 and 2006. Each time it is organised, the show tours to three UK...
5, exhibition catalogue, National Touring ExhibitionsNational Touring ExhibitionsNational Touring Exhibitions is a programme managed and funded by the Arts Council England that it aims to provide access to high-quality contemporary and historical travelling exhibitions throughout the UK. The programme organises 2-3 major art exhibitions a year and has a further dozen that...
, 2000, pp. 56–7
External links
- Artnet
- http://www.houldsworth.co.uk/artist-work/laura-ford
- New Art Centre
- Works at the Tate
- Laura Ford at sculpture.org.uk
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/artist-laura-ford.../4915.html
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-r3pKUcewQ
- http://channel.tate.org.uk/media/593571126001
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T7fyScFrUU – Upgraded to 3D