Ranconteur was an exhibition with Katy Beinart that took place at August Art Gallery in Shoreditch, April 14 – March 21, 2012. The starting point for the exhibition was the fragile and extraordinarily beautiful fragment of a book (shown above) on the work of light artist James Turrell, found in the rubble of the Momart art warehouse fire. For this show, Bobby Lloyd worked with a series of objects she had found on curbs, in fields, and at sites of fire and demolition – fragments of books, pots still with patina from being held, a light switch isolated from its power supply.
The exhibition essay read: ‘”Raconteur” is an exhibition exploring memory. The push and pull of trying to keep all sentiments and stories of ourselves intact, while at the same time not living in the past; the fragile hold on some memories and the heavy grip of others… There is also the relationship between the objects and their vitrines. We usually pay little mind to display units as it’s the contents we want to focus on. Here, they quietly draw attention to the act of preservation. We can see some of the containers allowing the contained ample room to breathe while others enclose their objects claustrophobically. Some provide sturdy protection whilst others are even more fragile than the objects. The containers can be read as metaphors for our need to hold on dearly, and also question whether we can?’
Work in progress in Lloyd’s studio
