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
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
Pay up, did you think you could get in for free, 2006 Porcelain, Resin, Enamel Paint, Mirror, Wood H90 x L37 x D15 cm
Told you so, 2005 Porcelain, Metal Cage
She's got a lovely personality, 2004
Shit! Now I’m going to be really late, 2006
How much is that doggy? 2007
Shit Daddy's going to kill me, 2007
Park Life, 2007
What did you say your husband did? 2006
Oh Mom! It was my turn to be guard, 2006
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.
Make me young forever, 2003
Oh Mummy, please can we keep it?' 2006
Dear God... 2004