Lolly Adams Act One (2025)
Water, pump, hose pipe, ceramic, steel, metallic paint, polyurethane foam, synthetic fibres, rug, vinyl; 306 × 362 × 50 cm
Exhibited in the Weston Studio for Premiums #1 Interim at the Royal Academy of Arts, Act One combines my collection of Pretty Ugly Pottery with fragments of architecture, folklore, and DIY aesthetics. Gurning ceramic portraits orbit a flocked bust of my torso in fuchsia, its mouth looping water through a garden hose. The marble-effect vinyl gestures to both Venetian façades and wallpaper aisles, creating a shrine that is at once reverent and artificial. I’m interested in how these grotesque figures might act as protectors against conservatism, opening up slippery questions of taste, class, and beauty.
Lolly Adams Act Two (2025)
Polyurethane foam, synthetic fibres, steel, cable, sweetheart cabbages, veil, toilet roll, vinyl; 283 × 470 × 280 cm
Exhibited in the Weston Studio for Premiums #1 Interim at the Royal Academy of Arts, Act Two combines flocked casts of my head with readymade objects to explore alter egos and the performance of identity. A veiled bride assembled from toilet rolls stands among sweetheart cabbages and faux marble wallpaper, evoking both Catholic shrines and rags-to-riches fantasy. These heads act as masks or doubles, likenesses that feel both comic and distant, staging identity as something exaggerated, aspirational, and slightly absurd.
