Barford spent the early part of his career capturing humorous moments in porcelain. Following the tradition of Hogarth, Chaucer, Dickens and Shakespeare, with a dark sense of English humour and satire, his porcelain figurines are objects with a long tradition of social propriety that explore and celebrate contemporary life, but which have become jarring or inappropriate.
Selected sculptures using found figurines 2003-2007
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I wish I was Hugh Hefner (detail), 2004 Porcelain, Earthenware, Enamel Paint H20 x L28 x D58 cm
"Humour is vital to me."
B. Barford
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Pay up, did you think you could get in for free, 2006 Porcelain, Resin, Enamel Paint, Mirror, Wood H90 x L37 x D15 cm
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Told you so, 2005 Porcelain, Metal Cage
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She's got a lovely personality, 2004
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Shit! Now I’m going to be really late, 2006
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How much is that doggy? 2007
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Shit Daddy's going to kill me, 2007
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Park Life, 2007
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What did you say your husband did? 2006
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Oh Mom! It was my turn to be guard, 2006
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Great Dr, but now what do we do with it?, 2006
The idea of creating new sculptures by piecing together old, first started while Barford was a student at London’s Royal College of Art. “It just occurred to me how much waste there is in ceramics. If it’s not perfect, it’s just thrown away. So I started to get interested in the idea of recycling.”
His one-of-a-kind whimsical ceramic sculptures provide a clever way of getting people to look again at something they would have on principle have dismissed, in anew a slightly disrupted way.
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Make me young forever, 2003
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Oh Mummy, please can we keep it?' 2006
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Dear God... 2004