Francis Upritchard: Wetwang Slack

New Zealand artist Francis Upritchard has created for The Curve, exhibition space at Barbican centre, London, a new installation titled Wetwang Slack. For the occasion, the artist displays a series of her archetypal sculptures, playing with colours, textures and scales. The itinerary begins with small clay figures in various poses, dressed with hand-made clothes and supported by plinths, followed by metal and glass shelves which hold smaller-scale felt hats, and it concludes with larger sculptures made of Brazilian rubber.

Uprithcard’s archetypal sculptures always draw inspiration from various sources such as, in this case, the figures of the Parthenon Reliefs, science-fiction novels and Japanese folklore. They are always hand-modeled in polymer clay by the artist, who paints them in monochromatic colours or distinct patterns and decorate them with bespoke garments and objects.