Maker’s Spotlight – Barnaby Barford

Barnaby Barford is a British artist that is best known for using ceramics in unexpected ways. Even though he is proficient in other art forms, Barford tends to return to the medium of ceramics time and time again. The end result of his process always varies. The artist commonly presents uncomfortable portrayals of the world that surrounds us. His unique work begs us to question our surroundings as he invites us to reconsider our choices and values, and to think about how we see ourselves in our environments. For Barford, one look is not enough…commonly, his pieces beseech us to “look again.”

In 2015, Barford’s “The Tower of Babel” generated many “second looks!” The installation was made up of 3000 miniature bone china buildings, each depicting a real London shop. Measuring almost twenty feet, each of the tower’s 3,000 shops were decorated from the artist’s photographs. Barford spent many days biking around London in order to take the photographs. In fact, the artist cycled for over 1,000 miles and visited every postal code in search of the perfect storefronts to employ. He says (courtesy of an interview with Dan Howarth for Dezeen), “We’re shoppers, aren’t we? I think we’ve ceased to be citizens and we’re now just consumers. So I wanted to explore that within our city.”

The storefront pieces are placed one on top of another and grouped by how expensive their merchandise is. In other words, the tower’s base is made up of abandoned stores, on top of that level are “basic need” shops such as butchers and fishmongers. Above those are newspaper stores…all the way to the tapered top which includes designer boutiques and galleries. He says, “In one way it’s a massive celebration of commercial London, which has always been a place of trade, and it’s a critique.” As a bystander, it is clear that this piece implores the viewer to consider where they fit in this “consumption hierarchy.”

A couple of years later, Barford developed an obsession for the apple. He chose this fruit for two reasons. The first consideration is because the apple remains the most basic of fruit, perhaps calling it “humble” sets the tone properly. Apples are available year-round, as opposed to raspberries and kumquats that are of a seasonal variety. The second reason is that this fruit has been evident throughout the history of mankind. The earliest reference might be the “forbidden apple” in the Garden of Eden, artists such as Magritte and Cezanne painted “apple masterpieces,” and how about Snow White’s entanglement with the apple? In our Western Culture, the unpresuming apple has been used as a symbol of many different things: love, immortality, poison, and beauty.

Similar to Barford’s all-consuming attention to London’s shops, the apple was a main focus for the artist…and he tasted a lot of apples over the course of the project. For months and months, Barford sketched only apples. He said (courtesy of an article with Elly Parsons for Wallpaper), “In Western culture, we’re never satisfied with what we have, no matter how much we begin with. We’re in constant competition with our unachievable, anxiety-inducing appetites.”

So…different “apple iterations” were created. “Land of Hope and Glory” features an enormous, life-sized green apple that is meant to symbolize powerful people who are looking for more and more, never satisfied with what they have. He also drew charcoal drawings where the apples have short stems resembling bombs with a short fuse ready to detonate. “The Apple Tree” further taunts the viewer. This tree is full of bone china apples with words such as “status,” “glory,” and “outrage” scribbled on them. These apples tempt the passerby to pluck one, mimicking Eve’s scenario.

We love this quote by Alun Graves, Senior Curator of Ceramics and Glass Collection at the V&A “Barnaby Barford is brilliantly puckish and something of an agent provocateur. By seduction and guile, his work exposes us to our inner frailties, prejudices and desires, holding up a mirror to us both metaphorically, as well – on occasion – as physically. Few are so incisive and insightful.” We couldn’t agree more!