joseph scissorhands: Frances Upritchard: Surf 'n' Turf

Sunday 5 June 2022

Frances Upritchard: Surf 'n' Turf

Frances Upritchard - Crab

I hadn't seen any of Frances Upritchard's work in the capital since the wonderful Wetwang Slack at the Barbican in 2019 (here). So I made a visit to this small exhibition in Shoreditch a priority. I was enchanted by Upritchard's vision in Wetwang Slack, and had hoped to see more of her extraordinary world peopled by figures that look as though they had time travelled coming from points in both pre-historic and futuristic worlds to coexist simultaneously in a parallel universe conjured up by the artist. Sadly there was but one humanoid figure in this new exhibition as its main focus was on a variety of animal forms. Once again howver there was a fantastical mash-up of animals both real - crabs, eels, and historic - dinosaurs, and other imaginary creatures. Again I admired the handmade qualities of Upritchard's modelling skills on these beasts. They reminded me of some of the claymation figures that feature in the classic sci-fi films of American animator Ray Harryhausen.