bio
Julie Cockburn
In the age of the computer generated, the computer manipulated and the 3D rendered, Julie Cockburn’s work exists in a positively reassuring place. Evoking memories of delicate craftsmanship, her work – beautiful sculptures and paintings created out of printed image, paper, books, found objects and child-like mark making – is a curious mix of optical illusion and the simple transformation of everyday objects.
Julie Cockburn’s practice involves the manipulation of found objects and images. The materials used are familiar, generic and often nostalgic. In a creative journey that involves the sourcing of materials and the time-consuming labour of intricate cutting out, she sculpts from the books and maps she accumulates.
Using these as a starting point, Cockburn sees a similarity between the throwaway, (second-hand, out-of-date), the spontaneous, (Rorschach inkblot, childlike scribbles) and the generic, (deep within a cultural sub-conscious, almost to the point of invisibility as object). Using this similarity, she re-presents these objects with a personal ownership of something universal; she contradicts the generic and mass-produced with something crafted, to make these physically and intellectually worn objects precious again, and weighted with a different value.
Cockburn wants to make things that are already seen and visually digested by the world, to be interpreted in a new way.
The playfulness and nostalgia in Cockburn’s work is apparent, shown through a visual exploration and excavation of the materials she employs.
Julie introduces ideas to found objects that generate dialogue about modernity and art history, gender and identity, nature and urbanity and the relationship between process and idea, although it is an instinctive reaction to the found objects that dictates the piece, rather than an underlying intellectual or political viewpoint.
She is interested in the decisions she makes when constructing a work, continually re-assessing the idea of what is mine and what is not, heightened by the found objects used, and how much she wants to / can / should take that object into a personal world for her own intervention.
Julie Cockburn’s pieces are elaborate, intriguing and beautifully executed, with an autonomy that makes one want to believe their existence. Her work is in both public and private collections worldwide. She lives and works in London.
JULIE COCKBURN
Education
1993-1996 Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design
1992-1993 Chelsea School of Art
Solo Exhibitions
2007
Searching for the Key to my Soul, jaggedart, London
Come Into My Beautiful Garden, Seven Seven Contemporary, London
2006
Julie Cockburn, Campden Gallery, Gloucestershire (catalogue available) Plan B, jaggedart, London (catalogue available)
2002
Whenwood, Pea Gallery, Clerkenwell, London
1997
Blue Sky, Green Fields, 126 Curtain Road, London
Selected Group Exhibitions
2008
Artsway Open, Artsway Galleries, Hampshire
2007
Ten at One, FORSTER, London
Wellcome Trust Inauguration, London
Seen from the Wings of a Butterfly, Kunsthallen Brænderigården, Viborg, Denmark
Traces of the Past, jaggedart, London
Mapping, Bury Art Gallery Museum and Archives, Lancashire
Flora, The Eagle Gallery, London
2006
On the Fractured Stage of the Book, ICA in conjunction with London Artists Book Fair, curated by Emma Hill
The Furniture Shop, Pavia, Italy – curated by William West and Elisa del Prete (catalogue available)
Summer Dreaming, jaggedart, London
2005
An Open Book, Orleans House, London
Metamorphosis, thecentralhouse with Gallery One, London
On Paper, Collyer-Bristow Gallery, London
New Acquisitions, Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut, USA
Olympics: Site specific installation, Zetter, London
Blindart, Royal College of Art, London
Migrations, The Eagle Gallery, London
2004
Teatotal, Crafts Council 30th Anniversary Exhibition curated by Janice Blackburn
Rosetta Live, Riverside Studios, London
Ocean Flowers: Impressions From Nature In The Victorian Era, Yale Center for British Art, Yale, Connecticut, USA
Constructive Paper, The Harley Gallery, Nottingham
2003
Artist Books, Prints and Multiples Exhibition, The Eagle Gallery, London
Science Fact, Science Fiction, Pea Gallery, London
2002
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Applied Arts Agency, London
1996
Top Marks, Davies Street Gallery, London
1995
King Sturge Art Prize, Davies Street Gallery, London
Directions 1995, Lethaby Gallery, London
1994
Disclosure, Charlotte Road, London
Awards
1993
Setting Up Grant, Crafts Council
Collections
Yale Center For British Art, Yale, Connecticut, USA
The Wellcome Trust, London, UK
British Land, London, UK
Publications
November 2006 Julie Cockburn, Campden Gallery,
October 2006 Plan B, jaggedart with foreword by Pryle Berhman,
May 2006 The Furniture Shop, Pavia, Elisa del Prete,