Mat Collishaw, Tracey Emin and Paula Rego show in the Foundling Museum’s eighteenth-century interiors. All of the works link to the story of the Foundling Hospital, Britain’s first home for abandoned children, and its themes of childhood and separation.
This exhibition brings together these three remarkable artists for the first time. Each artist is internationally known for responses to pain and anguish associated with aspects of childhood, motherhood, abortion and loss. Now exhibiting together in the unique and intimate surroundings of the Foundling Museum, the artists have engaged in a dramatic visual dialogue relating to the story and themes of the Museum, which memorialises Britain’s first home for abandoned children.
Tracey Emin’s series of discarded baby items cast in bronze and originally shown as part of the Folkestone Triennale in 2008 make extraordinarily powerful and autobiographical references to loss. Equally provoking are Mat Collishaw’s presentation of a photographic series depicting Indian street children with eighteenth-century backdrops, including a lightbox image and a new snowdome work and Paula Rego’s life size figures of waif- like girls and babies depicting the violation and fall of young women.
This unique exhibition continues the legacy begun by William Hogarth in the eighteenth century inviting leading artists of the day to show new work at the Foundling, raising awareness of society’s failings towards vulnerable children and mothers.
Wednesday 27 January – Sunday 9 May 2010
The Foundling Museum
40 Brunswick Square
London WC1N 1AZ
020 7841 3600 // enquiries@foundlingmuseum.org.uk
Tues–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 11am – 5pm
CLOSED ON MONDAYS
Admission £7.50 // concessions £5 // children free
