‘Ask Freud’ for ‘EIDOS’

Porcelain, plaster, household dust and debris situated in a glass case.

Traditional figurines’ conformism is manifest in their reflection as a behavioural model regarding social class, gender and aspiration. They are cultural artefacts that may allude to beliefs, myths and rituals.

Barker’s dust figures are a mix of found and created plaster artefacts. In the dust figurines the artist mimics and references the mass-produced factory object while instilling time and effort into the creation of each individual hand crafted piece referencing the time taken for dust to accrue. The dust is applied with painterly precision; dust is the substance that holds life together and could be viewed as a witness to human physical and spiritual vulnerability, ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust’

The ‘debris’ of dirt and dust, coarse flakes of skin cells, domesticated animal hair and bits of unidentifiable protrusions is linked to the repetitive domestic actions undertaken as a daily home cleansing ritual. Dust seems useless and insubstantial, a nuisance, a danger to health and a substance to be thwarted in the arena of the treasured relic. This dusty debris holds a residue and the human DNA and data of her collective family. Barker wants us to question perceptions of ugliness on the outside masking a beautiful interior and vice versa.  The artist has subverted the aesthetic of the cherished and valued beauty of the figurine. The juxtaposition of the gentile and the disgusting engenders our repulsive fascination.

Denied the expected elegance of space to preen and reflect in our admiration, these figurines huddle in a confined and claustrophobic space. A sense of unease and catastrophe are summoned