Veronica Ryan, Cluster

Cluster
2021
18 bronze magnolia pods, fishing line
110 x 17 x 8 cm

Veronica Ryan was born in Plymouth, Montserrat, moving to London as a child. Ryan is well-known for her sculptural assemblages and engagement with history and identity. In2022 she was awarded the acclaimed Turner Prize for her exhibition at Spike Island in Bristol (2021), and Hackney Windrush Commission in the same year.

 In 2000, Ryan was invited to work in Barbara Hepworth’s former studio in St. Ives, and used marble gifted by the Hepworth Estate to make sculpture responding to Hepworth, and to her own interests in interior and exterior forms, identity and place.  Cluster was commissioned as part of Ryan’s intervention into The Hepworth Family Gift in 2021, one of two contemporary commissions for Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life. Veronica found the magnolia pod (cast in bronze in this work) in Hepworth’s garden. Sweet Dreams are Made of These is a major floor-based piece incorporating ceramic casts on a fabric base, bringing in another important material facet of her practice.

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society through its Special Partnership with the Henry Moore Foundation, supported by Cathy Wills, 2022/23

Photo: Michael Brzezinski