Secret Society @ The Hospital Club

24 Endell St, Covent Garden, London
Until Sunday 13th November
Can be viewed from the street any time day or night

Creating an exhibition for Bergdorf Goodman

For the last 6 months I've been working for my first show in New York:

'Secret Society at Bergdorf Goodman'

from 22nd May

 

The exhibition comprises a plaster banquet attended by characters from my Plaster Bust Collection.

The New York Times came to my studio to document some of the preparation for the show as part of their 'Making it' series

photo by Jo Metson Scott

When Bergdorf Goodman asked if they could visit my studio over a year and half ago I was delighted that they were interested in my work but I certainly never imagined that that unexpected meeting would lead to my creating on of my Secret Society Banquets for their iconic Fifth Avenue store 18 months down the line - and my first exhibition in New York City. What a venue.

It's certainly been an intense few months work in the studio to create the over 80 objects and busts for the banquet. I have no idea how many bowls of plaster I mixed or how many miles I tramped backwards and forwards across my studio in the making of the work - a LOT!!

The banI made a number of 'still life' sculptures like this tray with decanter, glasses, a vase of roses and bowl of grapes.  Everything is dipped in and then fused together with plaster.

There should always be plenty of delectable food at a banquet and everyone loves cake! 

There are 13 different busts in the exhibition. I make these by first creating a sculpture from real objects and materials and then making a silicone mould of this original, and finally a plaster cast. This cast is being taken from the silicone mould.

A mini mock-up banquet in the studio to show Bergdorf how the work was going.

A pile of artificial flowers to be transformed into voluptuous plaster bouquets.

'Librarian' being carefully extricated from the silicone mould.

I lost count of how many bags of plaster I got through.......

Another 'still life' - I source the original objects in charity shops, thrift stores, flea markets, ebay.....anywhere I can find interesting looking pieces which fit the aesthetic of an '18th century banquet'.  I'm interested in how plaster can transform objects of low intrinsic  into high status sculpture.

Demoiselle D waiting for her plinth. Her hat was inspired by the iconic 1960s 'coolie' hats designed by Dior. When I reference fashion - contemporary or historic - I'm always looking for designs with a strong sculptural form.

When the bust comes out of the mould there's a lot of finishing work to do, cracking of the flashing (plaster which has seeped from the mould joints) and using a sharp mini chisel to work smooth these rough edges.

My studio got fuller and fuller by the day..

I sourced my exotic fruit and vegetables from a company which makes fake food for advertising - interesting how the brightly coloured hollow plastic is transformed into solid three-dimensional sculpture by coating it in plaster.

Lots of processes and layers of plaster to turn the fake flowers into plaster bouquets.

The thing with plaster is timing - you have to get it right. Pour too early and it isn't strong when set, leave too long and it's too thick to pour. There's a lot of hanging about waiting and if you go and do something else for too long you return to find the spoon sticking out a solid bowl of plaster!!

One of the trickiest things when making the plaster flowers is finding a way of placing them to dry without the petals getting squashed and misshapen. The plaster is very heavy when wet and the flower heads have to be supported while they dry.

This was the 3rd attempt at creating a giant pedestal fruit bowl. the first two times the plaster was too thick making the shapes below blurred.  Hacking off the plaster each time was difficult as it's a very hard alpha plaster - almost like concrete - and my assistant had to use a drill with a masonry drill bit to prise off the fruits from the base - twice!  But I didn't want to put anything in the exhibition that I wasn't 100% satisfied with so that's the way it goes.

Always a slightly nervy moment pulling off the silicone and hoping the cast has come out in one piece.

I think shellfish look particularly exotic and very fitting for a deluxe banquet.

These tea cups were a great find, I knew the whirly stripes would make a great relief pattern in the plaster.  Sourcing all the objects was really a fun - and the easiest!! - part of the project.  Even now the exhibition is up and running I still can't stop myself from rummaging around charity shops in search of that 'perfect' Bergdorf banquet object!

Bergdorf Goodman - iconic 5th Avenue store  and somewhere I never imagined would play host to my Secret Society Banquet. Still, it's a fitting venue for the plaster bust collection, those girls have always had ideas above their station!

For images of sculptures in the exhibition

visit the website

Secret Society - a Last Supper

The latest event for my Secret Society Plaster Bust Collection was staged at the exquisite baroque church of St Edmund King and Martyr in the City of London

I was invited by Bo Lee Gallery to create an installation as part of the show 'Odyssey',  first staged at Bath Abbey last year and including sculpture by Damien Hirst and Tessa Farmer.

Given the setting, rather than a banquet it seemed more appropriate for the Secret Society to partake of a Last Supper - a feminist version of course.

The church, tucked away in Lombard Street, is attributed to Sir Christopher Wren,   It really is slap bang in the middle of the City and the pulsating markets of capitalism ...............

......and given the location, I thought I should make a reference to those City boys, tapping away at their computers, making frenetic calls to Wall Street and totting up their gains and losses at the end of the day - all just feet away from St Edmunds.

The idea for the installation leapt at me the first time I walked into the church - the chancel with altar behind seemed to cry out for a biblically referenced Secret Society event.

I looked at lots of Renaissance paintings of the Last Supper to identify the kind of objects artists depicted

The paintings always include a variety of flagons, flasks and chalices, baskets and bones and of course decanters of wine.  The objects in my installations are real things coated in plaster and I came across some quite biblical looking flagons at a car boot sale and the bones and a skull in sheep country on the Welsh border.

An old-style adding machine and some phones were another great car boot find - referencing those City traders.

Many of the Renaissance paintings of the Last Supper illustrate the washing of Christ's feet so I created a feminist version of this using high-heeled stilettos. The basin is one of my studio plaster-mixing bowls. 

The Last Supper was the first chance to exhibit my latest member of the Secret Society - 'Speed Freak' - she has an F1 racing car on her head.

Alongside the IT paraphernalia, the City trader's other crucial appendages are the shrink-wrapped sandwich and take-away coffee so I squeezed those in among the crabs and sheep bones.

Chalices, shoes and sheep bones - a strange and interesting juxtaposition. I enjoy finding those.

The City of London is a fascinating area and one which I hadn't often explored before this show. Of course it is extremely old being the place where trading was first established in London in the original coffee shops. There are still many old, old passageways threading their way around the buildings and connecting streets and the old pubs and restaurants are truly fantastic with polished wood, etched glass and crisp white table cloths

The juxtaposition of buildings of different periods is visually stunning - the is the Royal Exchange with the Cheese Grater behind. Illustrating I suppose how this area renews itself over and over again every few decades.

Bank of England in the background under the beady eye of the Duke of Wellington.

Statue of James Henry Greathead who pioneered a method of tunnelling which was used to construct the London Underground. I love engineers! We never think about them but they do such fantastic things and so many aspects of our lives are totally dependent on their skill and imagination.

The Cheese Grater again and part of the Lloyds building behind the ornate arch of Leadenhall Market.

A fascinating district from many points of view - the energy of the City is palpable when you surface from Bank tube -the streets are a spin of single-minded individuals, totally absorbed  in their mission to move that money around to their best advantage - kerching kerching!!! And the architecture is a fascinating backdrop to this activity which has taken place continuously for generations all within this one square mile.