"A sculpture trail, a murder hunt – they suddenly became one and the same"
This installation was first made for an outdoor sculpture show, 'Ha-Ha' curated by Iwona Blaswick, which was in the grounds of Killerton House near Exeter in 1993.
The work was based on the fictional lives of mannequins that formed part of the museum at Killerton House. (A hilarious reality implied by way of their brochure descriptions). I love museums and had asked for any literature about the house and contents in advance of the first site visit.
The missing notices and wax body parts referred to 'the Bride' as featured in the previous year’s brochure. Now missing, she had been replaced with a new display. The Bride had indeed been stripped bare.
A sculpture trail, a murder hunt – they suddenly became one and the same – very ‘British’, a tongue-in-cheek parallel.
However the plot thickened as the cast (very lifelike) wax body parts were deemed unsuitable for the public sculpture trail and so became part of a more complicated work that developed because of and about their 'unsuitability' - issues of realism in art that were raised as a result. Had they been more badly made, abstract, less convincing, would they have been allowed to stay?
The earthed up body parts became the 'Incident Room' at Spacex gallery, which was close by in Exeter city. They were shown in a heap of soil surrounded by photographic lights and behind a wall of glass. In an adjoining room was a chair and table upon which there was a newspaper. This was a self-written, fictional report, inserted into the day's local newspaper (Express and Echo, Friday 18 June, 1993). The whole thing went full circle – the dramas of the real page opposite becoming part of the plot. Even the person who had objected to the work’s outdoor inclusion felt that I must have been happy with the move to the gallery since “I had landed myself with a full page write up”.
The work was reconstructed as part of the show 'Gothic', curated by Christophe Grunenberg, ICA Boston in 1997.
The body parts are casts of Sam Taylor-Wood (now Johnson).
Abigail Lane, 2016.
The Bride, the Body, the Mystery and its Maker,
Wax, hair, oil paint, earth, photographic lights, printed paper,
1993
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Images from top: The Bride the Body the Mystery and it's Maker: The Incident Room 1993 at 'Ha Ha', curated by Iwona Blaswick, Spacex, Exeter, UK, Abigail Lane © Abigail Lane, All Rights Reserved, DACS 2016; The Bride the Body the Mystery and it's Maker: Missing Can You Help? 1993, Abigail Lane © Abigail Lane, All Rights Reserved, DACS 2016, Photo: Abigail Lane; The Bride the Body the Mystery and it's Maker: The Incident Room 1993, at 'Gothic' curated by Christoph Grunenburg, ICA, Boston, 1997, Abigail Lane © Abigail Lane, All Rights Reserved, DACS 2016; The Bride the Body the Mystery and it's Maker: Newspaper 1993 installed at 'Gothic' curated by Christoph Grunenburg, ICA, Boston, 1997, Abigail Lane © Abigail Lane. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2016; The Bride the Body the Mystery and it's Maker: Newspaper 1993, Abigail Lane © Abigail Lane, All Rights Reserved, DACS 2016.