David Bailey: Sculpture & Photography

Renowned as one of the world’s most illustrious photographers, David Bailey’s forthcoming exhibition will shock viewers as he presents a dark and rugged collection of cast silver and bronze sculptures alongside a body of new photographs, which will underline the stark contrast between the two mediums and emphasise his versatility as an artist. The show will explore the idea that image-makers should not be confined to one discipline, as Bailey insists, “I’m not saying I’m a sculptor, I just make images. I don’t take photographs, I make them. And now I’m making something else.”

In this exhibition, Bailey strips away conventional beauty, and instead focuses on the skull that lies beneath the perfect skin once captured by his camera. Skulls were an obvious choice of subject matter for Bailey. Over the years he has assembled an impressive collection including the craniums of a gorilla, a hippo, and even a tiger that he extracted himself from an old moth eaten head. “The skull is nature’s sculpture” he says. “The old ones get this lovely patina.”

 From a miniature skull cast in silver to a five foot bronze, Bailey’s sculptures are distinct in appearance yet similar in purpose as they serve to remind us of our own mortality. Inspired by Picasso, it is also clear from his work that Bailey has been considerably influenced by the cult like imagery of tribal art. This primal simplicity has shaped Bailey’s signature style from his earliest to most recent creations, albeit producing quite different results. Bailey’s sculptures, raw yet glinting with a touch of humour, awakens our basic instincts of fear, sexual desire and the inevitable onslaught of death.

Press release