Lucy Tomlins and Becky Whitmore

About

Both of these artists graduated from the MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in June 2012. Lucy Tomlins' artwork is directly referential to the everyday, material objects of our society and her approach is one of a remaking of those ready-made objects; her process of understanding wrapped up with the physical encounter she has with the originals and the alternatives she creates. Lucy relies on the very specific set of cultural references and symbolic qualities imbued in the original object but this remaking also enables a response to the everyday that is somehow materially shifted. Formal and material transformative decisions and juxtaposition allow for a removal of any unproductive associations or symbolic qualities the ready-made equivalents may have and for the addition of others. In Becky Whitmore's own practice she seeks out and remakes abandoned, forgotten and discrete objects. The things that fascinate her are often in a state of flux or suspension, understated or taken for granted in their previous lives. Her works rest on a historical base but are very much of the imagination; mixing timelines, the natural and artificial, using both traditional and modern materials. The work brings anachronistic sources and materials together to make work that is firmly rooted in the language of sculpture.