If Not Now When? Generations of Women in Sculpture in Britain, 1960-2022 Hannah Clugston review Guardian April 2023 The Hepworth Wakefield From flattened coffee pots to a steel wedding dress, embroidery to a rotting dessert trolley, a kaleidoscopic range of work by women sculptors is part of a vital generational study It
is these tiny yet unlikely links that make If Not Now, When? so
enticing. Pathways of conversation dash out all over the gallery. Helen
Chadwick – who was a respondent to the first survey – is represented in
photographs and the script from In the Kitchen, her performance where a
series of models function as part of kitchen appliances. The domestic
setting speaks to Renate Meyer’s embroidered food packets that narrate
childhood trauma and sexism, and the concept of a body, bound and pushed
into a specific shape is also apparent in Victoria Rance’s steel
wedding dress. Iavor Lubimorov introduction to Firebird at Platforms Project Athens with Cable Depot 2022 Rance has a history of creating wearable art and using performers to activate creatures which emerge from a mythological subconscious and speak to us through form, movement and sound of an ancient past and of the present plight of the earth. Recalling a forgotten primitive state, Rance’s work is a visceral reminder that we are of nature and not separate, that we need to care for the environment we live in by identifying ourselves as a part of it and the sheer mystery and awe of life – our own and that of all other living creatures which inhabit the waters, the earth and the sky.
Natasha Moody text for Creek Dreams Seager Gallery 2022 Rance encourages viewers to understand the entanglement of river wildlife and humans through a series of works featuring her animated alter ego Fisherdottir who has been swallowed by a great grey heron. Rance’s other talismanic works on show at Seager Gallery use the mythic tropes of transformation, human and animal companionship and magic to encourage feelings of connection and responsibility for the other beings that exist within our immediate entangled ecosystems.
Iavor Lubimorov introduction to In Real Life at Cable Depot 2021 What unites the experience of either visiting locally in
person, or viewing live online from the other side of our planet, is a dreamy and dislocated sense of the boundaries between film, objects, space, time and
location. Definitions are blurred, and scale disrupted, so that visitors online
or in real life, objects, sculptures and characters seem to inhabit each
other’s dreams (in some past, or possibly future place, but also here and now). The overall sense in the end is not so much a play on scale and time, as an
absence of both. A place, in the artist’s words, as big as ‘the size of our
imaginations’.
Alexandra Kokoli Introductory text for Sleepy Heads Blyth Gallery Imperial College 2019 In Thorness Sleeps, Victoria Rance creates a universe of myth and magic in the shape of a small installation, in which a female, earthlier manifestation of Thor, Thorness, a tiny black creature covered in briar thorns, is guarded by a motley crew of imaginary entities, organic matter (including a dead spider), and talismans. Rance challenges divisions between human and animal, science and magic, and strives to restore the land to its ‘lost creatures & local spirits’. We will all sleep better if she succeeds.
Walthamstow Wetlands 2018
Victoria Rance unearths mythologies of the environment: she imagines the insect souls of mayflies, mosquitoes and midges, and their reincarnation, and explores the magical worlds of fishermen and herons. She researches, reimagines and dreams backstories and histories of the landscape’s inhabitants, channeling its myth-forms and connections to Celtic otherworlds.
Anna McNay Introduction to catalogue
The Night Horse and The Holy Baboon 2017
Much of Rance’s work deals with archetypes and the wearing of masks,
exploring what Jung describes as the compromise between what one
likes to be
and how one likes to appear – the persona
as it stands
in contrast to the personality.
Her cast of recurring characters,
besides Loki and his friends, includes
Medusa, Perseus, Nuit (the
goddess of the sky), and, most recently, the Night
Horse and the
Holy Baboon. Her Sculptures
to Wear include caterpillars, a worm,
and wasp spiders – a striking variety
of arachnid that disguises itself
as a more harmful species to evade a common
predator.
This theme of (self-)protection and vulnerability permeates Rance’s
practice, and if one archetype can be said to lie at the heart of her
work, it
is the Mother, whose attributes Jung describes as ‘maternal
solicitude and sympathy; the magic authority of the female; the
wisdom and
spiritual exaltation that transcend reason’. On the
negative side, the Mother
may connote: ‘anything secret, hidden,
dark; the abyss, the world of the dead,
anything that devours,
seduces, and poisons, that is terrifying and inescapable
like fate’.
Together he formulates the
ambivalence of these attributes as
‘the
loving and terrible mother’.
For Rance, there is always this ambivalence between good and
bad,
violence and serenity, with her characters often coming in
opposing pairs. While
her work frequently draws on the darkness
that lies beneath, she seeks not to
shock, but to mend or to help.
Space for
a Girl (2011), for example, was made as a safe space for
her niece, while SOS (2013) was made as a form of
psychological
armour with her own daughter in mind.
Penny Hancock interviews Victoria Rance
after her recent exhibition in The Learned Pig
an online magazine about art, thinking,
nature and writing edited by Tom Jeffreys.
PH: Mythical creatures often feature in your work, as well
as real animals. I am thinking of Loki, or The Night Horse
and the Holy Baboon,
in your recent exhibition. Would
you say there are some archetypes that
speak to all of us,
and what do you believe these represent for us?
VR: I think there are some very powerful archetypes that we
carry
within us. Horses seem to still be so important to humans.
And even
creatures we’ve never come across speak to us.
Wolves for example. I
grew up in the countryside by woods
and was frightened of wolves and
thought I heard them at
night, even though I knew there weren’t any
there. Fear is primal,
like fear of snakes. As we mentioned earlier, I
am just now
researching hyenas and how they have been a carrier of
certain human qualities we want to disown or make “other”.
From Penny Hancock reviews Victoria Rance: The Night Horse and The Holy Baboon Sculptures, Drawings, Photographs and Animations 2007-2017 at The Cello Factory 23-30 October 2017 on a-n.co.uk reviews The silhouettes of two giant figures, long eared, long armed —human? —animal? —mythical? —straddle the entrance to the gallery. They appear to have their backs to us, guarding what lies ahead. Or are they facing us, offering us protection, or warning, as we enter? Between the figures, a giant, golden-haired baboon can be seen against the light. Beside it is a wooden horse, reminiscent of a nursery toy, but enlarged out of all proportion. It is one of the most striking entrances to an exhibition I’ve ever seen. Inside the baboon seems menacing, sinister, towering over the horse. The horse, made simply of wood with its stylized, half- closed eyes, and its naïve contours, appears vulnerable, its head down, demurely facing the baboon. But as you approach The Night Horse and The Holy Baboon your perceptions are subverted. It’s the horse that has a sinister air about it, the baboon a protective one. Can the simplicity of the horse figure be trusted? Can the dominating presence of the golden baboon perhaps be interpreted as comforting, a protective giant, watching over us?
From Thinking is Making Presence and Absence in Contemporary Sculpture
Black Dog Publishing 2013 Edited by Michael TaylorExcerpt from text by Fiona MacDonald Themes of shielding and protecting take
centre stage in the work of Victoria Rance, and most of this refers directly to
the human form. Her metal and fabric masks, helmets and armour, designed to
protect from exposure to both elemental forces as well as other people are
intended to be worn. The performers with whom she collaborates are significantly
more than just models, and are often family members. It is often these
performers' own needs, (as imagined by or explained to Rance), that trigger the
work.
On her studio wall are photographs of a
spider, a beetle and a caterpillar, each one a species that disguises itself as
another in order to avoid attack - impersonating a poisonous species, whilst
lacking their own protective weaponry. Whole-body enclosures one can wriggle
into take up the bright warning patterns of small beasts to act as a different
kind of armour, protecting the vulnerable space of the psyche from the cruel or
indifferent realities of life by allowing the wearer to become other than
themselves.
Rance
can achieve an impressive interweaving of the mystical and the commonplace, in
both conception and fabrication. Her ideas often arise from interaction with
children, where the barriers between real and imagined are less rigid. Many of
her methods: metalwork, stitching weaving have their own counterpoint in the
ancient and mythical world. In the pieces where a particular method and form
coalesce, the symbiosis resonates throughout the work.
Matthew Goodsmith interviews Victoria Rance for
Occupy My Time Gallery's Tipping the Line
From Osnabrücker Zeitung newspaper
Of Monsters and Demons (translated from the German) 6 September 2013 by Tom Billman
It’s about demons, those ugly little monsters that lurk within
us
and sometimes forcefully push out to dominate our everyday lives:
“The
Sleep of Reason” is the title of an exhibition of works by Sylvia Lüdtke and
Victoria Rance, which opens this evening at BBK
in the art district.
It all began with Francisco de Goya, "The Sleep of
Reason Produces Monsters" (1799) is an etching by the Spanish artist, in which a man falls exhausted on a table in the bedroom, meanwhile, bats, owls and sphinxes band together looming over him. Osnabrück artist Sylvia Lüdtke and her colleague from London Victoria Rance took this impressive work as a starting point for their artistic engagement with reason and what happens beyond Rationality. For one year they worked together on paintings, sculptures and objects specifically for this exhibition. They emailed ideas and suggestions, and discussed via Skype to realise the project. Now the Kunst-Kabinett of myths and dreams, and the nature of the subconscious in everyday life is ready for the public. Rance sat down to analyze figures from Norse mythology, and with the help of psychoanalysts such as Sigmund Freud and CG Jung, turned the archetypes into sculpture-like costumes to wear.
Published in Habertürk Turkish Daily Newspaper 10 June 20121- How did you start your work with Medusa?
I started working on the
theme of Medusa after visiting the Byzan-
tine Cisterns in Istanbul. In
2008-9 I made work about Arachne (who
was turned into a spider by the
envious Minerva) and back in 1996
a sculpture about Danae who was the mother of
Perseus, so I had
already an interest in mythology, transformation and the
human
characteristics which the stories of the gods portray. When I
saw the
Medusa I was shocked by the physical presence of the
huge stone head
upside-down in the water, and by the massive
(phallic) column on her head.
Here she lies beneath the very
centre of old Istanbul, and it felt
symbolic to me of a civilisation
being founded on the suppression of female
power. I wanted to
reanimate her. Work about Perseus and his weapons and powers
came later. I wanted a contrast between the young boy and the
older woman, and
also the unarmed woman and the boy with so
much help and so many weapons from
the gods.
2- What is important in your work?
I have different
interests. The symbolic and the story carried in
the work matters very much, I am interested in psychological subjects which have a meaning now, but often have a long history. This is why my work often refers back to the past, past artworks, buildings, artefacts. I often visit museums and am interested in history, ethnology and archaeology. I also spend a great deal of time making things by hand, again with reference to traditional crafts which I feel matter very much. Working by hand is something so human, and is so satisfying. I often fight with myself about using the computer, and do it unwillingly. I am interested in feminism, which connects to both the subjects and the use of crafts and making. I care very much about how women are treated and worry sometimes that our daughters may lose the gains in freedom and equality we have now and which our mothers and grandmothers fought for.
3- Generally your work is black
and white. Why black and white?
Does that have any meaning?
I like the immediate power of black and white. I find it seductive
and rich. It gives me a thrill which I can't explain. I do use colour in my sculpture, and use shiny reflective surfaces, but for my animations and recent images I feel happier with the excitement of black and white.
4- What is you thinking about power and politics of the body?
Also what do you think about beauty?
For me Medusa represents
a powerful image for women. As I said above, feminism matters to me very much. I want women to be able to have control over their own bodies and not feel pressurised to be slim or beautiful, or to hide themselves or to wear particular clothes. I respect each woman's right to be able to make their own choices, and sometimes they have to angrily protect that right. As for beauty in art, I do want my work to have a strong aesthetic quality, some artworks I make are shocking or frightening, some are beautiful. In my animations I wanted Medusa to remain powerful, so I left the end of the Medusa and Perseus animation ambiguous. He had so much help from the gods to kill her; all she had was her angry stare! So I made her huge and powerful. A lot of my work deals with protection of the vulnerable and fragile, and how hard it is for sensitive people to exist in a world where you often have to be hard and cynical and mistrustful of others. How do we empower ourselves or look after the vulnerable? My ‘sculpture to wear’ series deals with ways to imagine this. I make sculptures like costumes and ask people to wear them and be photographed in them, I want to capture a vulnerability in those photographs and the animations which follow.
5533 Residency Space for a Woman: Walking through the city Victoria Rance September 11-16, 2011 The purpose of Victoria Rance’s research trip was to subjectively experience personal and shared spaces in the city, in particular she searched for ambivalence about spaces for women. She wanted to experience how they are negotiated and demarcated in comparison to those in London. Her quest began at the Harem in Topkapi Palace, a historical designated space for women that has played an important role in the western imagination. She found the harem quieter, cooler, and more pleasant than the rest of the palace filled with noisy tourists. Similarly, in the mosques, the areas designed for women were sheltered from the noisy hustle and bustle of everyday life. In the Eminönü mosque, she witnessed children playing, chasing, and learning to walk in the shared prayer space. She learned that the demarcation of spaces is more complex than a westerner might suppose.
a sense of both shelter and imprisonment. A wall of steel flowers forms a shield like a gauntlet. Their petals face inward allowing, no doubt, the occupant an idea of the pastoral. But if there is delicacy and decoration Space for a Woman is also rough, threatening and not a little medieval. It wraps its occupant into a corner, forces them to stand and acts like a cage.
Nonetheless there is beauty. And the piece is a shelter;
it's just difficult. It may be small but it is on a human scale.
And the occupant can see out."
Review by Gavin Street of The Economist Plaza londonart.co.uk 2001
"Rance's steel sculpture plays on tensions between old and new.
Its simple geometric form is essentially modernist, yet strongly evokes a much earlier age with a sense of spirituality that is at odds with its modern environment.
Entering
the sculpture's interior through a gap in the steel rods affords a rare
moment of refuge, a reference to the church's role as sanctuary. Any
sense of security is short lived however, as the converging struts draw
our eyes upwards to accentuate the feeling of being penned in on
all sides by the towering office buildings." |
St John's Waterloo 2001
"It may seem irreligious to suggest that the line between life and death is commonly crossed over, anyway. Victoria Rance's cage with open doors is delicately wrought out of material to create an essential place within a place. It is straightforwardly necessary for sculptors to create to control a place for atmosphere. The combination of church, which already predetermines certain expectations, and Rance's transparent mausoleum is strong. The whole place is brooding anyway and yet this suggests a stillness after the event, that something has already happened.
Rance desires to bring a certain level of tenderness
back into the situation; the priest might preach this
anyway, from the pulpit, but here given references
merge with artistic production."
Ann Elliott Fe2O5 catalogue
Darlington Arts Centre 2005
& APT Gallery 2006
"Victoria Rance creates apparently fragile
structures in steel.The resulting lace-like
patterns resemble decorative wraps or blankets
or fine silk veils. She works with memories
gathered from her past, reconsidered from a
current point of view. Religion, death and life
inform sculptures that become memento mori
or reflections of an unusual free-ranging
childhood.
Attic 2004-05 is based in her recollections of
the 'Under 12's Camp Attic,' where Rance and childhood friends gathered, a secret place where older siblings were not permitted.
The sculpture is the evocation of a roof space, made from leaves purchased from the catalogue of decorative steel foliage and flowers. Rance has created a safe place, that is as much camouflage
tent or cover as it is an attic. Once assembled, the sculpture was sandblasted and sprayed successively
with hot zinc and hot copper. The resulting near terracotta colour further endows the work with the association of the roof hideaway. "
Victoria Rance The Mark Tanner
Sculpture Award
Standpoint Gallery, Hoxton
by KM
www.londonlostandfound.com
"A series of sculptures look like they have
something to do with places to shelter, or
protection, in the way that shells do. But
they also have an air of the residual about
them, as if what was once there has vacated
the safety of this shelter.
There are no literal narratives, rather,
they have an overall sense of humanity.
The absence of clear practical function
which these objects display further adds
a spirituality, or religious aspect to them
insofar as what we cannot see in terms of
practical function, we invent as metaphor and icon."
 |
| Victoria Rance The Tree of Forgetting |
Charles Pickstone excerpt from
Paying
Attention: The Sculpture of Victoria Rance
Charles Pickstone was the 2006 winner of the Bernard Denvir
AICA Memorial Award for Art Critics with this article, link:
Image Journal USA 2005 (ISSN 1087-3503)
"Rance's particular talent to evoke into
AICA Memorial Award for Art Critics with this article, link:
Image Journal USA 2005 (ISSN 1087-3503)
"Rance's particular talent to evoke into
almost visible form; a sort of alembic of
infinity. A work like this acts like a valley
of dry bones and almost compels the
viewer to clothe it with flesh. Whether this
"flesh" is actually narrative shape,
psychological analysis, historical association,
structural interpretation or material resonance
- all of which are perfectly possible - Rance
provides us with the phonemes of a visual
language, the minimal visual signifiers that
the viewer needs, once drawn into these works,
to participate in a language that speaks of the
richness, complexity and depth of life itself."
