Foul Play

Claire Barclay

Claire Barclay
Foul Play - 2005
Installation view, doggerfisher, Edinburgh

Foul Play is an assembly of sculptural forms. It was created specifically for doggerfisher and continues Barclay’s exploration of the hard-edged and the sensual; the manufactured and the natural, the menacing and the seductive.

Foul Play appears precarious. The weight of a piece of silk cloth is just sufficient to prevent a suspended gun-like piece of anodized aluminium from slowly spinning and unravelling itself free; a twisted length of hide that curves and holds two splayed sections of oak is taut: the tension is palpable. Seemingly incongruous materials are arranged cheek by jowl: on the ground a telescopic-like object lies prone on a crusty, blotchy rawhide. The hide has only been partially tanned, hence its callous and wizened appearance: a far cry from supple and luxurious leather. A wooden structure is propped at an angle into the well of the gallery skylight, a further barrel-shaped piece of aluminium ‘stands at ease’ besides another smooth oak beam. Elsewhere a brass rod has been manipulated in to a vague circular form, at its end a piece of machine-turned horn.