By Clive Jennings
Ffound is a fascinating new exhibition of work by artists from around the world who collage found objects, or parts thereof, to create figurative and abstract images.
The idea of appropriating existing objects to create works has a long tradition in twentieth century art: from Marcel Duchamp’s first “Readymades” in 1915, through Cesar Baldaccini’s repeated objects in the ‘60s to our own Tony Cragg’s wall pieces made from colour graded rainbows of discarded fragments of plastic.
The eleven featured artists display not only ingenious ways of manipulating and presenting their upcycled media, but also creative terms to describe their source material including: “findings” and “re-purposed objects”.
Gallery director Nick Woolff explains: “The Woolff Gallery has specialised in 3-dimensional artworks for a number of years, we are consistently drawn to works created using unusual mediums or techniques. As a gallery we have noticed a common trend emerging in which artists are creating incredible works of art using found objects and re-purposed materials. In almost all cases the artworks chosen for this exhibition have taken months or even years to create, and the act of collecting and finding the materials has become a lifelong obsession for the artist.
Frequently there is the concept of sustainability, the environment, and the damage that humans are doing to the planet, but also apparent is an opposition to the accelerated pace of life in the 21st century, where high-speed communication, hand-held devices, and computers encourage us to act and think quickly. These thoughtful, lo-tech, and slowly hand-made artworks all encompass this opposing theme in their own unique way.”
Ffound at the Woolff Gallery, 89 Charlotte Street, London W1T 4PU from 18 April to 25 May. A group show featuring work by the following artists: Zac Fremman, Russell West, Jud Turner, Michael Speller, Joanne Tinker, Wycliffe Stuchbury, Steve McPherson, Ryan Matcham, Frank Miller, Giulia Bocchi, Keith Haynes. woolffgallery.co.uk
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