Faye Toogood (b. 1977) is a British artist working across a diverse range of disciplines, from sculpture to furniture and fashion.
Clay Court is an immersive display of 17 giant sculptures, hand-shaped in clay-like cement composite, presented as seats, benches and arches. The collection of soft, rounded and roughhewn forms are taken from the artist’s body of work Assemblage 6: Unlearning, 2020 in which she set out to ‘unlearn’ the process of design and build it up again from scratch. She began by making 300 playful maquettes from everyday materials found in her studio. A selection of these were then scaled up to life-size works that retained the immediacy of their original form.
Clay Court’s arrangement, created specifically for the grounds of the Qatar National Theatre, explores the maquettes’ passage into the ‘real’ world of furniture and sculpture, inviting people to interact with them up close.
