Cathie Pilkington: The Life of Rooms

Interesting exhibition at the University of Brighton Gallery of two installations by Cathie Pilkington.

The first installation was called Harmonium and was a shelving unit covered in small, realistic, fantasy sculptures such as a goat sewing up a goat skin and Red Riding Hood. In the middle was a spookily realistic figure of a strange child sitting at a vintage dressing table. I have no idea what it was about but I loved all the quirky figures and layers of strangeness.

The other installation “Anatomy of a Doll” was based on the idea of the life studio at the Royal Academy and in fact it had previously been shown there. There were strange, small, posed female figure on stools surrounded by benches set up on a raked stand as in the studio. It refers back to the days when women couldn’t work from life and also the Degas ballerina figures. I loved the figure in Clarisse Cliff knickers!

Closed on 28 May 2017

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