Lucy Ellerton (b. 1993, London, UK) previously studied at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. Lives and works in London.
Lucy Ellerton
At first glance and on the surface the works appear to be a generalised critique of consumerism, the American Dream. Instead, they become a commemoration not only of losing family and all that comes with it but a material encounter of the dynamic of a lifelong relationship... A passing of a vision or a fantasy of America that is no longer possible to uphold... The stockpiling of products to keep entropy at bay is mirrored in the meticulously precise remaking of each item.
In progress
My maternal grandparents are Bob and Barbara Grant. They live in a suburb an hour outside of Chicago. My grandmother grew up less than an hour away from where she lives now, my grandfather in upstate New York. I grew up here, in London, but ended up at university in Chicago.
For as long as I can remember my grandmothers love for shopping, coupled with her (undiagnosed) OCD has left a vivid imprint in my mind. Her specificity when it comes to home goods’ is still outstanding at 93, and she still maintains a stockpile of specialist Ziploc bags, that were only produced in Canada and discontinued many years ago.
You might consider you can learn just as much about a person as by the objects they own, the clothes they wear, the company they hold or the house they might keep.
With that in mind – the below works depict details of a simple portrait of two people in their final chapters of life and a fond image that represents comfort, care, OCD, delusion.
To me this is the American dream. What more spectacular selection of objects to represent a life of comfortable success; to stockpile 2-12 months’ worth of household goods. Yet it also represents our fragility. The unstable, unsettling image of a visual insight to the mind, of someone who is in the process of fading away. The inability to differentiate between necessity and loss of memory.
Medium:
Oak, ash, london plane, stainless steel, jesmonite, steel, UV print, cotton caps with polyester thread, ClosetMaid shelving
Activity Room –
Acrylic, jesmonite, fiberglass, pine, 16 wood screws, oak, uv print, monitor and cables (variable), 19 second video (on loop)
110 x 110 x 20 cm + Monitor (variable)
2022-2023
18 second video on loop
Done –
Screen print, walnut veneer frame cork pinboard, magnets
Edition of 5 + 4 A.P's
130 x 90 x 4 cm
2022-2023
Pineapple Crisp –
Pineapple Crisp
Edition of 2
Screen print, aluminum, silicone
52.5 x 143.5 x 2.5 cm (each)
2023
Taken from "Make It Now Bake It Later" cookbook by Barbara Goodfellow
Published in 1965
Notes written by my great-grandmother in the back of "Make It Now Bake It Later" cookbook by Barbara Goodfellow.