Pearl Button Queen
Not everyone looks at safety pins, zippers, and
cigarette butts as art materials, but British artist
Ann Carrington sees amazing things in the everyday.
Photography by Mark Proctor (crown) and Marcus Sorrento (queen)
“All objects are saturated with cultural meaning,”
she says. “Mundane objects like knives, gloves,
shoes, shells, and tin cans come with their own
ready-made histories.”
Sometimes she reuses discarded objects, like
tin cans to create a brace of fish; other times she
re-envisions industrial materials, like upholstery
nails. Levi Strauss & Co., Clarks, and Mercury
Telephones all have commissioned works made
from their own factory materials.
Before she starts on a piece, Carrington, 45,
creates a “visual diary” where she collects “any
image that takes my fancy.” For some pieces, the
title comes first. Pirate Radio was a sculpture of
a radio made from real skulls and crossbones, gathered from butchers near her home in Broadstairs.
Other times, the materials trigger the form, as
in Tusk. To Carrington, ivory-handled knives suggested elephant tusks: “We use knives in much the
same way as an elephant uses its tusks … I felt I had
returned the knives to their rightful owners in a
cyclical story.”
Her recent work is an homage to classic British
iconography. Instead of paint, she uses needles,
pins, and zippers, or pearlescent buttons, a nod
to the Cockney “Pearly” kings and queens.
But just because she loves using buttons,
dressmaking pins, and tailor’s chalk doesn’t mean
Carrington can’t wield heavy-duty machinery. Her
favorite tool is a Makita sabre saw, one step down
from a chainsaw, that “cuts through huge chunks
of wood like butter.”
Working with so many diverse materials, she
is constantly learning new skills. “It’s hard work
working the way I do, as each new sculpture involves
materials I have not worked with before and often
there is no precedent — so I can’t consult a guidebook!”
—Arwen O’Reilly Griffith
>> Carrington’s sculptures: anncarrington.co.uk
