Barnaby Barford

Salads? I'll give them fucking salads! 

We have a "Visiting Practitioner Talk" every Wednesday, from beginning to now, we had Tom Guald ( a cartoonist and illustrator, his drawings are simple and concise, can be seen in many publications) , Alice Stevenson ( an illustrator and surface pattern designer, work for Marc Jacobs, Hugo Boss and etc ), James Jarvis ( very famous illustrator and toy designer, i have already seen some of his work before, maybe 10 years ago, not sure), and my favourite one - Barnaby Barford ,who is an artist and filmmaker use the ceramic medium to create narrative scenes , most of time, these scenes are very satire.

The Reason why i enjoyed this lecture is not only his witty work but also his inspiring presentation. His work doesn't relative to illustration directly, But these images appear to tell stories in strong and humourous way. In other words, he make an illustration with these 3 dimensional objects.   

Wait until I get home, they're going to go crazy!

The way Barford work is reproducing the porcelain figures which are purchased from mass markets and antique shops. Cutting them, exchanging the part of them, and also repainting them. To be honest, i really cant tell these figures are assembly and remade :P

At least I'm still here

The stories he tell is reflective of current affairs, for instant, alcohol and teen drinking, teen gangsters and guns, celebrity culture, fast food globalization, and so on. Very irony but true.

Shortly After the Marriage (1743) by William Hogarth(1697-1764)

In this talk, Barford mentioned Hogarth, Chaucer, Dickens and Shakespeare as his inspirations, and displayed some paintings from Hogarth, these  compositions are dramatical and powerful. And Dickens and Shakespeare are well-known geniuses at using words to describe people and affairs in that periods. All of these masters' works have something in common, that are telling stories brilliantly and responding to the era they lived in. So, it is easy to understand why the scenes that Barford created are narrative and closing to everyone.      

Barford showed us other three film clips as well, two of them are masterpieces from Jan Svankmajer, i have seen them before.(By the way, Jan Svankmajer is an original creator and pioneer undoubtedly) ,and the other one is so ridiculous funny, Please search "Nigella XXXMAS" on youtube. i won't put that thing in my blog XD

Final, here is Barford's film called "Damaged Goods" , that is an 100% love story, looks like a tragic romance, but its ending is quite happy. ( Just click the title, it would link to the page)