Royal College of Art Exhibition
In 2016, The Royal College of Art held a retrospective exhibition of my work, titled Pop Goes the Weasel! Named after the nursery rhyme about a coat that has to be pawned or “popped” in exchange for various objects on a serious night out in London town. I liked the chaotic imagery of exchangeable items; it chimed with the work I made when I was a student at the RCA and the new sculptures I intended to show. This was the first time all of my work, old and new, was gathered under one roof. Paul Smith penned the forward to the catalogue; as he had purchased nearly all of my MA show from when I graduated, he was the perfect fit!
In the main gallery I showed all things metal, including my bouquets welded from silver, nickel and steel spoons. The centrepiece, Devil’s Trumpet, was acquired by the Victoria and Albert from the exhibition and is now on permanent display in the Silver Galleries.
A huge wall of coins dominated the gallery. Laid out like a giant souvenir coin display case, it featured “drawings” of my favourite coins which were enlarged to the size of satellite dishes. The images were punched into pewter and tin using a hammer and roundel, a method used to make ancient coins. The kaleidoscopic patterns and lines which make up the coins were transient and danced with the light, inspired by the swirling interlaced guilloché security patterns found on bank notes and watermarks.
Next to the bouquets hung a homage to middle England, featuring amulets, totems and talismans found in homes across the land: horse brasses, lucky pixies, magic pennies, horse shoes and brass souvenir tokens. The charms of England presenting themselves in the form of three supersized net curtains.
Oversized coins were sculpted into huge gold, silver and bronze urns which I called Pots of Money. Sculptures about accumulating and collecting, they were a metaphor for our deeply ingrained need to accumulate and hoard, to safeguard the future and to show off. Each vessel is named after a Las Vegas slot machine.
Other works included riotous scribbled coils of thorny barbed wire which were teased and tamed to produce magnificent rose blossoms, and delicate feather headdresses, inspired by native Indian headdresses and the court of Louis XV, but made from coat hangers, iron nails and drainage pipes.
Also on public display for the first time since it travelled down the Thames on the royal barge, was The Royal Jubilee Banner, commissioned by the Queen in celebration of her Diamond Jubilee in 2012.
V&A Museum Magazine – Devil’s Trumpet
BBC South East – Pop Goes The Weasel
