Life Room: Anatomy of A Doll
1 April - 14 April 2017
Life Room, Royal Academy Schools
£5
Cathie Pilkington RA’s reappropriation of the doll calls into question the figurative tradition in art. Take a tour of her latest project in a unique space where the depiction of the human body has been explored across the centuries.
Known for her unsettling sculptural works, often crafted from an eclectic array of materials and techniques, Cathie Pilkington RA is the Professor of Sculpture at the Royal Academy Schools. This latest project brings her uncanny, doll-like creations into the realm of the RA Schools’ Life Room, traditionally the setting for the practice of drawing from casts and models. Here, their simultaneous beauty and strangeness will be revealed in various stages of completion, accompanied by other bodily fragments and remnants of the creative process.
Characteristic of Pilkington's practice, in this project the domestic register of toys and ornaments is entwined with the grand canon of sculpture. Inspiration is drawn from a series of small wax dancers by Edgar Degas that were cast only after his death, freezing their transient poses in permanent bronze. Pilkington explores viewers' voyeuristic tendencies in the presence of these naturalistic figures by revelling in reimagined distortions of form and impossible anatomies.
Join a guided tour led by an RA Schools student, venturing into the hidden depths of the Academy, where you can stand amongst these disconcerting "dollies" and form your own answers to the questions they pose.
Access to this project is only possible on a tour, due to the location of the Life Room and the major renovation works taking place in preparation for our 250th anniversary. Tours last approximately 45 minutes and will be held twice a day, at 11am and 2pm. Please note, this installation contains some adult content.
We regret that there is limited level access to the project due to extensive and ongoing building works to improve our site. If you are planning to visit and have any access requirements, please contact us on 0207 300 8090.
The project will be closed on 8-9 April for a two-day course, 'Exquisite corpse: a masterclass with Cathie Pilkington RA'. Find out more or book a place here.
£5
Supporters
The 'Degas Dolls' series was supported by the Machin Arts Foundation
Machin Arts Foundation
David Roberts Art Foundation supported the production of the sculptural moulds used for this project.
David Roberts Art Foundation
Gallery
Cathie Pilkington RA
Cathie Pilkington is a London-based sculptor and a figurative artist, renowned for creating increasingly ambivalent forms which combine the interrelated and antagonistic worlds of fine art and craft. Her figures are often doll-like, approaching the immediacy of ordinary figurative playthings, and thereby challenging the art-world’s customary and mediated relationship between the viewer and the artwork.