Lou Baker Portfolio August 2022
It’s a question of balance. The darker side of Lou Baker’s sculptural practice is balanced by a brighter side of social engagement, as she makes public things that are normally private. Her works are provocations - to thought, conversation and action. Stereotypically, hand-knitting is functional, perfect and finished, associated with garments, domesticity, comfort and the body. Baker subverts these expectations by ‘knitting together’ her ideas with her explorations of material, process, form, colour, surface and installation. It’s sculptural, sloppy craft; unfinished, unravelling. Site-responsive, it’s shapeshifting, formlessness and flexible. Alluring, yet somehow, uncanny, its soft impermanence reminds us of our mortality.
Artist statement
2022
Red is the colour of…. 2, current work in progress, March 2022 - present Please click here for a video of the work in progress
Social knitwork, 2022 Worldwide Knit in Public Day (WWKIP), community knitting, Bath, June 2022 Lou knitting
(m)other, 2022, used bedding and towels, meat hooks, installed at The Holburne Open as part of seam collective’s A VISIBLE Thread residency, March/April
Made flesh, 2021-22, hand knitting,knitting needles, series of 6, installed at The HolburneOpen as part of seam collective’s A VISIBLE Thread residency, March/April
(m)other 2, 2022, used bedding, towels and underwear, zip, stitch, used mattress Detail
Permission to play, 2022, a month-long participatory project, a collaboration with Oliver Bliss installed at The Holburne Open as part of seam collective’s A VISIBLE Thread residency, March/April Click here for documentationvideo
Entrails, 2022, hand knitting, installed at the Holburne Open as part of seam collective’s A VISIBLE Thread residency, March/April A visitor responding to the installation
2021
Parts of me, 2021, hand knitting, PVC, zips, stitch, steel, concrete, lead, the artist’s sandals, installed at The MA Degree Show, Bath Spa PleaseSeptembeUniversity,rclickherefora walkthrough video
Red is the colour of…, 2019-2021, handinstalledknitting,at Real space residency, Michael Pennie Gallery, Bath Spa University, April/May 2021 This installation has been selected for Bloomberg ContemporariesNew2022
Cocoons, 2021, hand-knitted monofilament,installedat ‘Regeneration’, Stone Lane Gardens, Devon, June-Oct.
Contamination anxiety, 2021, the artist’s hands cast in lead, steel, nuts and bolts 1 of a series of 4 pairs
Social knitwork, 2021, a participatorymonth-longproject at The Art Cohort and around 4 trees on a walking trail in Bath, WatchMay/Juneavideoabout Social knitwork here and an Artist talk here
Impossible shoes 2, 2021, concrete, lost wax cast of the artist’s feet
2020
Parts of me, 2020, hand-knitting, steel, Jesmonite, plaster, the artist’s shoes, a series of 4 assemblages, installed at the Interim MA Degree Show at Bath Spa University, September Walkthrough video
Body cocoons, 2020- 2021, (wearing the unwearable), performance stills Click on each image for a short video
Self portrait, 2020, canvas, tights, steel, concrete, stitch
Wishing trees, 2020-2021, a series of participatory4 installations set up in public spaces in Bristol during the first Covid-19 UK lockdown To see 2 videos of Lou talking about the Wishing trees, please click here and here. For more information click here and here.
Impossible shoes 1, concrete casts of the artist’s shoes
2019
IN.BRS.2019. 39sacks(Shadowover dark pool), 2019, a collaboration with Scott feltedSandford,handknitting, dark pool,mechanism,dripping installed at ‘B-Wing’, Shepton Mallet Prison, 21.9- 6.10 Click here for a video
Red is the colour of…, 2019, site responsive installation at ‘B-Wing’, Shepton Mallet Prison, Sept 21-Oct 6 Walkthrough video
Day 1 Day 16 Feedback cell, 2019, garden netting, labels, cloth and thread, participatory installation at ‘B-Wing’, Shepton Mallet Prison, 21.9 - 6.10
Shadow sacks in the slopping out room, 2019, felted hand knitting, series of 5, installed at ‘BWing’, Shepton Mallet Prison, 21.9 - 6.10
Living sculptures, prison series, 2019, made for ‘B-Wing’ in response to Shepton Mallet Prison, 21.9 – 6.10
The presence of absence, 2019, used clothing, used shoes, washing lines, pegs, installed at ‘B-Wing’, Shepton Mallet Prison, 21.9 - 6.10
Tethering our thoughts, 2019, string, fruit nets, labels, a site-responsive, participatory installation at ‘Incendiary’, Stroud Valley Art Space, Stroud Click here for a short video
Pillars of fire, pillars of rage, installed in a tree, Jan 2019.
Click here for a video
2019 4
One
A series of 5 sculptures installed at ‘Incendiary 2’, Pound Arts, Corsham, August 2020 Pillar of fire, pillar of rage, installed at the Sculpture Open, Royal West of England Academy (RWA), Bristol,
Pillars of fire, pillars of rage, 2019-20 hand knitted wool, knitting needles
2018
Living sculptures, 2018, with a participant, installed at ‘disquiet’, Walcot Chapel, Bath, Sept. Click here for a video
Unseen, 2018, red monofilament, knitted monofilament, knitting needles, site responsive installation at Walcot Chapel, Bath, September
Internal monologue, 2018, hand knitting, knitting needles, installed at ‘disquiet’, Walcot Chapel, Bath, Sept. Click here and here for videos of visitors interacting with the sculpture Internal monologue installed at an allotment
The whole is greater than the sum of the parts, 2018, canvas, stitch
Parts of me, 2017-2018,feltedhand knitting, a series of sculptures,6 installed at The Cells at Town Hall Arts, Trowbridge, for ‘Subversive surfaces’, June - July Part of me 1, 2017
Comfort/discomfort, Day 27, 2018, elastic, cloth, labels, ceramic labels, a collaboration with Gina Baum, a site-responsive, participatory installation at ‘Subversive surfaces’ exhibition, Town Hall Arts, Trowbridge, June/July
2017
Pharmacopoeia, 2017, pill packets, staples
Safety net, Day 12, 2017,gardendetail, netting, labels, cloth, a site responsive, participatoryinstallation at ‘Refuge: in search of safety’, FringeBath,Arts May/June
2016
Day 6Day 4 Day 16 Day 11 Day 16 Day 23 Day 25 Day 9 Don’t wash your dirty laundry in public, 2016, used clothing, washing line, pegs, body bags
2015
All the babies I might have had 2, 2015, detail, leather, imitation leather, felted knitting, used clothing, zips
The others; a self portrait, 2015, leather, imitation leather, knitting, knitted felt, felt, velvet, concrete; stitch, print installed at The Degree Show, University of the West of England (UWE), June
The Others; a self portrait, 2015 leather, imitation leather, velvet, felt, knitting, felted knitting, fake fur, zips
The others; a self portrait (wearing the unwearable), 2015, leather, imitation leather, velvet, felt, knitting, felted knitting, fake fur, zips
2014
Nobodies, 2014, knitting, felted knitting, leather, leather,imitationused clothing, velvet,knittingzips, needles, meatchains,hooks, installed at ‘Synecdoche’, Embassy Tea Gallery, London, June
Nobody 1, 2014, leather, imitation leather, used clothing, velvet, zips, meat hook, chain; stitch, print
Pre-2014
Shroud, 2013, hand knitted wool
Plastic surgery, 2012, plastic bags, stitch, performancestill Image: Jonny Baker
All the babies I might have had 1, 2011, hand-knitted, felted wool
My imaginary friend, 2012, used clothing, zips, stitch
Other 3, wearing the unwearable, 2015, imitation leather, felt, zips, stitch, print onContact:www.loubakerartist.co.ukloubakerartist@gmail.comForregularupdatesfollowmeInstagram,FacebookandTwitter @loubakerartist
