Coinciding with Frieze London and Frieze Masters, Stephen Friedman Gallery is pleased to present a large-scale, interactive sculpture by Jonathan Baldock in the intimate setting of Grade II* listed Fitzrovia Chapel, London. ‘My biggest fear is that someone will crawl into it' is an exuberant, four-poster bed into which visitors can crawl, lie down and listen to a personal narrative recorded by the artist's mother. Baldock's work is saturated with humour and wit as well as an uncanny, macabre quality that channels the artist's longstanding interest in myth, folklore and narratives associated with ‘outsider' practices. The installation coincides with a solo exhibition of new ceramic sculptures at the gallery and is accompanied by a text by Martin Hargreaves.
Overview
Baldock's work is saturated with humour and wit as well as an uncanny, macabre quality that channels the artist's longstanding interest in myth, folklore and narratives associated with ‘outsider' practices.
Coinciding with Frieze London and Frieze Masters, Stephen Friedman Gallery is pleased to present a large-scale, interactive sculpture by Jonathan Baldock in the intimate setting of Grade II* listed Fitzrovia Chapel, London. ‘My biggest fear is that someone will crawl into it' is an exuberant, four-poster bed into which visitors can crawl, lie down and listen to a personal narrative recorded by the artist's mother. Baldock's work is saturated with humour and wit as well as an uncanny, macabre quality that channels the artist's longstanding interest in myth, folklore and narratives associated with ‘outsider' practices. The installation coincides with a solo exhibition of new ceramic sculptures at the gallery and is accompanied by a text by Martin Hargreaves.
Originally commissioned by SPACE, London, Baldock's work plays with the symbolic role of the bed, "a site for safety and recovery, a place to retreat to in order to be healed, or a secure centre in a chaotic world". Disrupting the confines of a traditionally private space, Baldock invites the viewer to hear an overtly personal, family narrative that explores the artist's relationship with his mother. This recording is transformed in the context of the chapel, laying bare the discomfort of revealing private parts of one's identity on a grandiose level. The canopy itself features hand-embroidered corporeal motifs that evoke a dreamscape, adding a further fantastical dimension to Baldock's internal world.
Jonathan Baldock (b. 1980, Kent, UK) works across multiple platforms including sculpture, installation and performance. He graduated from Winchester School of Art with a BA in Painting (2000-2003), followed by the Royal College of Art, London with an MA in Painting (2003-2005). With work often taking on a biographical form, Baldock addresses the trauma, stress, sensuality, mortality and spirituality around our relationship to the body and the space it inhabits. In the spring of 2019, Baldock had a solo exhibition at Camden Arts Centre, London which toured to Tramway, Glasgow in August 2019. He will have a solo exhibition at Kunsthall Stavanger, Norway in May 2020. Other notable solo and two-person exhibitions include those at De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill (2017); The Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool (2017); Southwark Park Galleries, London (2017); PEER, London (2016); Chapter Gallery, Cardiff (2016) and Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge (2013).
Baldock's work is saturated with humour and wit as well as an uncanny, macabre quality that channels the artist's longstanding interest in myth, folklore and narratives associated with ‘outsider' practices.
