A barbell tower piled up with small houses are placed in the middle of the flashing gallery. In 2015, British artist Barnaby Barford (1977 -) presented the hierarchy of capitalist society with various shapes of houses. Afterwards, he set up a giant apple that seemed it would fall down to us. The apple from the story of Adam and Eve, Newton and Cezanne and Magritte observed are the symbol of desire. The works produced by Barford in industrial ceramics, glass fibre, and HD form dig into the greed scattered in society from the past to the present and the anxiety that overwhelms us. Recently, he showed his work by exploring the meaning of words as “truth,” “hope,” and “false,” and considered the lives of individuals and communities. Now, let’s see the path where the artist’s thinking takes.
It’s been almost a year since the UK locked down the country. While forcing things to stop, which was moving fast, our daily lives changed and influenced our thoughts. We have encountered unfamiliar words such as national lockdown, global pandemics, and panic buying for toilet paper that we don’t usually hear. In the meantime, as human group selfishness and discrimination (Black Lives Matter, Anti-Asian) have been revealed, we are now facing a challenge about how to solve these problems in the future.
Barnaby Barford (1977 -) had constantly questioned human nature. Questions such as “Is our society happy, if not, why?’ A graduated from the Royal College of Art with a master’s degree in ceramics; he made his name known by critically viewing and satirizing the nature surrounding humanity, such as fear and selfishness. <The Tower of Babel>, which he introduced at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2015, is a 6-meter tower with 3,000 small houses. The artist drew most of his attention by critically demonstrating society’s consumerism. Barford’s longstanding interest and the main theme of his work is the world we live in, whose worries turn into fascinating and entertaining ones. Topics that may seem rather heavy (power, truth, lie) are glossed over in his eyes. The artist, who says humour is indispensable in the process of working on ‘Humour is vital to me,’ hopes that through satirical social elements in work, people can relax their guard a little and accept new things in a tense society. He emphasis society paradoxically rather than sarcastically, allowing people to participate in the subject. Recently, the artist looked at our society, which has changed to feel unhappy and lacking through an apology. In the exhibition <More, More, More>, he hung apples with somewhat abstract words such as “Love,” “False,” “Hope,” and “Chaos” on the apple tree, allowing the audience to think about the meaning again as they pick their own apples.
Dictate the desire to overwhelm us with vague words.
Now that serious questions about society are more urgent than ever, I asked the artist’s thoughts; Museums, Art Galleries have been closed without promise. How have you been working during the Pandemic?
There were many restrictions on my work due to the Pandemic, but this time was also challenging. First, I was not very satisfied with the drawing work I started the previous year, and the first lockdown began around the time. During that time, I was working with my children, 7 and 9, starting home-schooling, and the time was very enjoyable. The fact that I was able to focus on one task after a long time while working on various projects at the same time also contributed. I started working with great satisfaction as if my house had been turned into a residence. The studio walls were made of white drawing paper and down with my children. All of us were excited at the beginning as I could be with the children. But you know, as long as the lockdown has been extended, the kids have lost interest, and I also wanted a new try at my work. Currently, I’m trying a new process by drawing on an iPad rather than paper.
We can find interesting words in your work. Can you tell me more about the words ‘Power’, ‘Social’, ‘Hope’, ‘Truth’, ‘False’?
I often think about society, and I think last year was a pretty interesting time. These concerns focused on looking at the flow of words, believing that any generation would have done it. Among them, I’ve been thinking about the subject of happiness for a long time. Happiness can be linked to anxiety, and anxiety from scarcity eventually leads you to feel unhappy. As I made a list thinking about what I wanted ‘more’, such as more fun, more friends, more love, and more money, I came to feel that we were overwhelmed by so many things. I was also surprised that political power could control humans so easily when Britain was noisy over Brexit. As you know, the more anxious society is, the easier it is to control people. When these words are repeated continuously through media or politics, they deviate from the existing meaning and have different meanings. So, I started drawing on words that we think positively, such as hope, change, and choice. Letters written thousands of times on paper in different sizes and colours later began to appear as newlines rather than a word, and the meaning of the words became ambiguous.
For the artist, ambiguity can be seen as when a given meaning or stereotype of a word is broken. And that moment means to us a place to think, to choose form. I can feel changes in work such as drawing and video work as well as sculpture and installation. Can we talk a bit more about this and what connections the past and present works have?
I think it’s a natural change that happened to me due to changes in the working environment. I first started working on the kitchen table after graduation. At that time, the work that could be done at the kitchen table was small works. Since then, the studio has grown little by little, so I have done a big job. The other is the development of technology. Over time we look at the same problem differently. In that sense, all tasks change little, but connections sometimes arise as I am drawing. For example, I felt in the <Tower of Babel> work that we live in a society where we have no choice but to be unhappy. The hierarchy and material problems of consumer society show the urge to confirm our self-esteem. If we were in a situation where we could be satisfied with everything, we wouldn’t need anything more. I thought we should try valuing the wrong things and reconsider whether they were too easy to think about and move by. Apple-tree began in a similar vein. However, I do not necessarily work considering the connection to all the works. I tend to work with free thoughts.
How does clay, the primary material of the work, relate to the ideas and techniques?
‘Thinking through making’, I think about it rather than making it for something. The process of making is itself a thought process for me. For example, the soil is pushed into different contexts, challenging expectations of materials and the ability of old industrial processes. The recent drawing work had been a new challenge. Drawing is spontaneous and ceramic work is based on planning and sequence. Therefore, repeated work considering the following process seems to have reduced my fears or boundaries about other materials. Through these repetitive tasks, I understand myself a little more and think about where I am.
How important is communication with visitors in your work?
It’s as important as expressing my thoughts that people make together. It is essential for people to participate, whether through humour or action. In particular, modern art often recognises visitors passively. 3000 small houses in the <Tower of Babel> has a monumental meaning. If the houses at the top of the tower are what we call small shops located in good neighbourhoods, they are stores located in opposite neighbourhoods as you go down to the bottom of the tower. As these houses are sold in museums, visitors experience paradoxical experiences. Visitors seem to buy the work, but the house's symbolic meaning depends on the visitors' interpretation.
Is there any work you really want to do next time?
I want to work more on the words ‘Love’ and ‘False’ that best describe our society now. I want to work with other cultures as an exploration of different values.
In the midst of fear and anxiety, people shouted, “Me first!” The artist has explored human psychology and nature. Everyone lives with different ideas, but now this society forces us to look at problems in specific contexts. Following the eyes of Barnaby, who may seem pessimistic, we look back on whether we have glorified our society too much. It is challenging to talk neatly about what is called artwork. Finding and explaining the correct word is not easy either. However, the artist’s work creates a space for us to think visually or mentally, allowing us to relax our shoulders a little bit in a too fast or complicated society. Barnaby ends the interview by saying that he hopes people can follow the essence but not be afraid of new things.
*This interview is a translated version of the Monthly Art Magazine in South Korea.