I'm not Unhappy Enough! 2008. Cast shopping bags in cement, gold leaf. Size variable
A few weeks ago, I travelled to the East End to visit Richard Ducker's studio. Located in a former firestation complex, his studio is a kind of Alibaba canvern full of sculptures and different projects, some completed, others still works in progress.
Having heard of Richard as a curator, a gallerist (he was the founder and director of the Fieldgate gallery from 2006 to 2008) and an artist, I did not expect to meet such a down-to-earth, approachable and friendly man. With his boyish, half rock band player, half teenager looks, Richard Ducker came across as a charming, discreet and witty individual.
We spent a couple of hours talking about his work, his inspirations, the making of his sculptures… for the past 10 years Richard has been exploring society's relationship to technology and tackling issues such as obsolescence.
3 bald men arguing over a comb, 2007
ARTIST'S NOTE: Title taken from a description of Thatcher v Galtieri during Falklands War. The pointlessness of petty arguments. Also hoping to evoke the humour of Giacometti with the absurdity of the phallic handles and anthropomorphic positioning of the objects that are designed to help recovery. The crutches are encased in caste concrete shopping bags the emotional dependence on shopping and inability to move. The body again conflated with consumerism in a kind of danse macabre.
A Pause Consuming Itself, 2008. Plaster, cement, compressed foam, gold leaf. 80x40x30cms
He has been using concrete, his trademark material, as “concrete is both a modernist inspirational material and at the same time a base material” to quote him. Words and language play an important part in Richard’s work. Each work has a meaningful title imbued with black humor and absurdity. He is interested in “the negation of language, a kind of dumbness both within and driving the work”… And definitely through his art, Richard has created his own alphabet, his own language.
Richard Ducker is currently showing at The Crypt for the The Space Between exhibition in London.
