Sophie Newell installation shots

Sophie Newell

08.Mar.08 - 20.Apr.08
Fri-Sun 12-6

Cell Project Space
258 Cambridge Heath Rd
London E2 9DA
020 7241 3600
info@cell.org.uk
www.cell.org.uk
Tube Bethnal Green, Hackney / Bethnal Green

Sophie Newell installation shots

Sophie Newell
Jerwood Artists Platform

8th March - 20th April 2008
open Fri.-Sun. 12-6pm
Admission Free & Wheelchair access

Sophie Newell’s first major London solo exhibition, as part of the Jerwood Artists Platform, presents a new series of five iconic sculptures. An element of humour and pastiche run through all of Newell’s work, in tandem with multiple historical, political and cultural references.

In a stark departure from her earlier expansive installations that often alluded to the classical language of architecture, Newell has developed a body of mainly wall based assemblages. Within these new works objects are collaged together and made unified, whether dipped in cement or cast, by their industrial grey surface. Certain discrete elements are highlighted through the application of saturated colour creating theatrical emblems that appear fossilised as though remnants of an obsolete cult.

In the front gallery ‘Club’ (working title, 2008), an oversized, time-less tool complete with over-slung animal pelt, brings together specific references from sources as diverse as Claes Oldenburg to ‘The Flintstones’ in a witty pastiche with a simple and bold graphic quality.

As in previous works, there is often a playful tension between the materials and objects contained within Newell’s pieces and their aspirations to transcend their humble origins. Creating a theatrical impact within the space, a further work in the series, reminiscent of a Roman standard, clusters together a pig’s head, garden torches and an eclectic selection of loaves, made abstract through the application of cement glaze. The result is a totemic masculine arrangement which cleverly fuses historical references and religious iconography with more contemporary elements such as tattoos and political emblems.

In the back gallery Newell will place a single floor based piece. A lone crow perches above head height on a tall cast tree stump. Similar in its simplicity to the ‘Club’, this quiet work is more gothic in its poetic symbolism.

For Newell, drawing is the starting point for the development of her sculptures and a collection of her intricate pen and ink sketches have been reproduced as the central fold-out pages of the Jerwood Artists Platform catalogue which features an introductory essay by Charles Darwent. Advance copies are available on request.