Weeping Girls by Laura Ford consists of five sculptures, each depicting a young girl as almost archetypal or fairytale figures. To convey the sense that the weeping girls are both overwhelmed and performing, Ford made the five sculptures faceless.

To come upon Weeping Girls in the grounds of Jupiter Artland is to be thrown up against the preternatural fear that attends the thought of a lost child. Viewers glimpse figures that are seemingly lost, above all, amid their own distress. The result is that the concerned viewer who draws close to the figures finds themselves quickly revising their sense of who is the vulnerable party in the encounter. The sculpture amplifies the emotional states of childhood experience. Ford often omits eyes from her figures, so that we have no ‘window of the soul’ to peer through. The faceless figures of Weeping Girls are hallucinatory, performative, spectral and uncanny.

‘A friend of mine told me a story about a fantastic tantrum his daughter had had where she was inconsolable whilst at the same time watching herself and the effect she was having in the mirror. The site I have picked at Jupiter has a quiet melancholic atmosphere and I felt it was the perfect place to introduce some unnecessary drama in the style of the story above.’ Laura Ford

Biography

Laura Ford was born in Wales in 1961 to a family of showmen who travelled the fairground circuit. She lives and works in West Sussex. Ford studied at Bath Academy of Art (1978–82) including a period at the Cooper Union School of Art, New York. She was included in New Contemporaries (1982) before joining the postgraduate sculpture course at Chelsea School of Art, London (1982-1983).

Her sculptures are faithful representations of fantasy with sometimes bitter sweet and menacing qualities mixed with tenderness. She frequently uses soft materials, fabrics and found objects are what she uses to create surreal figures from the imagination or fantasy. She uses humour and an acute observation of the human condition to engage with wider social and political issues. At first glance the subjects of childhood or animals might seem to reflect innocence or simplicity but there is often a shocking twist added to the work which confuses these qualities. Her work is intensely crafted but playful, and she has used a range of media to realise her work including, drawing, painting, performance, set design and public art alongside museum and gallery shows.

Her work has been included in numerous exhibitions, in the UK and internationally, including landmark surveys such as The Sculpture Show at The Serpentine and Hayward Galleries (1983) and British Art Show 5 (2000). In 2005 she represented Wales in the Venice Biennale. During the intervening years and beyond she has had numerous solo and group shows internationally, including at: Turner Contemporary, Margate (2007), Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (2006) Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Connecticut, USA (2004), Houldsworth Gallery, London (2003) and Camden Arts Centre (1998). Her work is represented in public collections including Tate, Arts Council Collection, The Victoria and Albert Museum, Government Art Collection as well as numerous private collections.