This solo stand of Josephine Baker (b. 1990, London, UK) comprises works made by the artist in her London studio during 2022, specifically for the occasion of Frieze London. The stand includes a combination of floor-standing, plinth and wall works, reflecting the artist’s interest in built environments and the array of material meanings that constitute them. Also on view will be a preview of Baker's new book Submarines, made in collaboration with writer M. Ty.
ARTIST STATEMENT
For Josephine Baker, making sculptures is like writing alternative physical stories to those with which we fabricate our world. The industrially-processed materials she uses are reconfigured and reimagined in the studio, into a questioning of the economic, ideological and human-centric forces that have produced them. As if in a microclimate of exchanges, the elements that make up Baker’s practice allegorise events to each other: Representations of landscape and natural phenomena challenge their role within imperialist worldviews; raw materials speak back to their consumable realities; tools take on their functions in zoomorphic form; and narratives of labour and survival are unearthed from the urban terrains which surround us.
Josephine Baker (b. 1990, London, UK) completed her undergraduate studies at Central Saint Martins in London in 2012, and her postgraduate in 2017 from the Royal Academy Schools, London. Her recent exhibitions include: Outfallers, Nir Altman, Munich, 2022 (solo); Drawing Attention: emerging British artists, British Museum, London, 2022; Clear out the wounds closest to the sun, V.O Curations, London, 2021 (solo); Wallwerk, Nir Altman, Munich, 2021; Drawing Room Biennial, London, 2021; The Land Lies, ChertLüdde, Berlin, 2020 (solo); well, well, well..., Sundy, London, 2020; Islands, Kupfer, London, 2019 (solo). She was a 12-month resident award holder at British School at Rome 2017–18. Her book Submarines, in collaboration with writer M. Ty, will be launched this November, a preview of which will be viewable at Frieze London 2022.