Joe Davies and a cohort of UAL Chelsea Fine Art (BA) students recently held the exhibition “In Memory of the Bread Child”. Each artist created a piece of work surrounding themes of maternity, emotion, and loss. In the centre of the exhibit was Joe’s sculpture: a figure crawling out of an oven, constructed near entirely out of bread dough. Memphis Maud featured in the exhibit with their wonderfully creepy performance art.
Q: This was your first exhibit; how challenging was it for you?
A: It was very challenging because I’m not used to putting my work on show. There’s loads of little things that you don’t know you need to do with an exhibition, I learnt a lot.
Q: What kind of little things?
A: Stuff like booking a venue… Also working as a team is something I haven’t done very often, so that was a challenge.
Q: Using bread as your main medium is unconventional, what prompted you to use it?
A: It was one of my lecturers. In one of their pieces they used gingerbread men. I thought it was interesting, I hadn’t seen it before. I also like the idea that it’s not permanent, that it’ll eventually rot and die; it’s an interesting dynamic to play with.
Q: What were the main difficulties you faced using bread?
A: It was quite time-consuming to make. The fact that it rots and smells caused some discomfort.
Q: I’m guessing you’re a bit sick of bread at this point?
A: Yeah, I’m going to take a break from it for now!
Q: Memphis’ interactive performance art was a highlights of the show, as they paraded the space and expressed ritualistic actions. How did the idea for “Mother Grub” come about?
A: It was Memphis who came up with the idea. I knew that we wanted performance art; we initially constructed an outfit constructed of bread loaves, but we found the pieces were difficult to wear and broke. So, we went with the idea of a hag covered in dough instead. I don’t think their performance was too planned, it was very raw and improvised, playing into what the audience was doing.
Q: What was the reception like?
A: It went well! People seemed to enjoy it, and I overheard some people saying they were scared which I really liked.