ABOUT | Daisy Collingridge

DAISY COLLINGRIDGE

Studio at Sarabande, The Lee McQueen Foundation 2020

The core of British artist Daisy Collingridges work is an exploration and celebration of the human form, working across sculpture, photography and performance, she delves into its anatomical properties with exaggerated flesh and limbs, harnessing a tactile and haptic quality of softness and colour.

It is this fascination with how we are all composed internally of things that we have no understanding or concept of, that intrigues Collingridge. Her work is a physical rendering of those things invisible and internal, making them external and tangible. Growing up with parents who were medical meant the body was something quite matter of fact and not to be shied away from, this was followed by a formative experience that awoke her curiosity further at the historic exhibition Body Worlds by Dr. Gunther von Hagens, of real anatomical bodies, which she saw as a child in London in 2002. Similary through the realms of public sculpture with Damien Hirst’s giant painted bronze anatomical figure of the body, Hymn (1999-2005).

Her own human forms are made from hand-dyed jersey, the fabrics separated into various hues of pink, ochre, yellow, and orange. Then they are quilted and stitched to create sinews and bodily shapes. “I essentially push this technique, where I free machine and quilt sandwiched layers of fabric to the extreme, so it is no longer recognisable as quilting. Each layered section mimics the line of muscles and flesh. It’s a way of sculpting with soft cloth; layering and stitch give the sculpture its rigidity and structure.” They are genderless characters, emphasising how universal we all are on the inside. The technique of quilting also evokes storytelling and narrative. For Collingridge her characters are emotive and endearing, here she is inviting us to become lost in their world of her creation, rather than extracting them to join us in ours.

EXHIBITIONS & RESIDENCES

2024 | 'Thread Count', The Art Station, Saxmundham, UK

2024 | Performance as part of V&A Lates Feminist Futures programme, London

2024 - 2025 | 'Fasions Corps', Maif Social Club, Paris

2023 | 'Splanchnic', Solo Exhibition, TJ Boulting, London

2023 | 'Boundless Textiles', Hive Curates, London

2023 | 'Sunset Ripple', Good Mother Gallery presented by Subtitles Labs, LA

2023 | 'EYE BODY', TJ Boulting, London

2023 | 'Within + Without', Unit Gallery, London

2023 | ‘Hysteria’, Gillian Jason Gallery, London

2023 | ‘Bod’, short film presentation and screening, Sarabande Foundation, London

2022 | 'Fragments', Omer Tiroche Gallery presented by Subtitle Labs, London

2020- 2022 | Sarabande Foundation Artist in Resident, London

2022 | 'The Demons Show', Group Show, London

2022 | 'Grossly Affectionate', Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, USA

2021 | 'Best seat in the house', WaterAid UK, Oxo Gallery, London

2021 | UNIT Gallery London, Platform Exhibition

2021 | Fumes and Perfumes, contemporary photography exhibition, Stuttgart

2021 | Xenia Creative retreat residency, 11-21 October with Isabelle Garrett

2021 | 'Served', Group Exhibition at the Sarabande Foundation, London

2021 | British Textile Biennial; 'Connected cloth' with 62 Group, Whitaker Museum,

2020| J Hammond Projects Artist in Resident, The Bomb Factory, London
2019 | 'Zeitgiest' 108 Fine Art, Harrogate 9th November-30th November
2019 | ‘The House of the Unmade bed’, Alexandra Palace, RDS Dublin and HCC Harrogate

2018- 2020 | ‘Ctrl/Shift’ Exhibition; 62 Group: MAC, Birmingham; 2018, National Centre for Craft and Design, Sleaford, 2019, Visual Arts Centre, 2020

ART FAIRS

2023 | The Manchester Contemporary, The Pallet Show, TJ Boulting, UK

2023 | Art Brussels, 'New Worlds' TJ Boulting and Division of Labour, Belgium

2023 | 'Cornershop', Non art fair by Minor attractions, London

EDUCATION

2010-2014 | BA fashion design, Central St Martins, UK

2009-2010 | Art Foundation Diploma, Loughborough University, UK

ONLINE PRESS

2023 | Timeout 'Daisy Collingridge: Splanchnic'

2023 | Showstudio 'Splanchnic explores the invisible nature of the body'

2023 | Metal Magazine 'A homage to the human body'