Paloma Proudfoot: The Box

3 Dec 2020-6 Feb 2021

Overview

Pippy Houldsworth Gallery is delighted to present British artist Paloma Proudfoot in the gallery’s microproject space, The Box. Buns without a face, running from 3 December to 6 February, is the artist’s first presentation at the gallery.

Buns without a face presents a humorous, perplexing form – a sculptural bust with its head and shoulders covered in long hair. The work draws on a quote from Sophie Collins’ Small White Monkeys: ‘I am angry because I have been ashamed for that which I ought not to have been made to feel ashamed, and, as I now know, anger is a battery’. Exploring the complexities of shame, Proudfoot obscures the face completely, expressing a wish to hide from the judgement of others and oneself. This instinct, rooted in part by self-preservation, points to the contradictory nature of this emotion. Though shielding herself, the figure projects confidence, holding her head upright on her broad shoulders, her neat buns shining. By shaping a hairstyle typically worn by women, Proudfoot examines how the experience of shame may be gendered, particularly in relation to personal appearance and constructions of femininity.