London3

News

Home News The Foundling Museum new exhibition - Self-Made: Reshaping Identities

Newsletter icon

Sign up to our
e-newsletter

Decorative arrow

The Foundling Museum new exhibition - Self-Made: Reshaping Identities

October 2024

The Foundling Museum are delighted to announce their next exhibition will open in November. Featuring work by four leading artists: Phoebe Collings-James, Rachel Kneebone, Matt J Smith and Renee So, who each use clay in different ways to explore embodied narratives, the construction of self and the capacity for physical and emotional transformation.

Image credit: Renee So Unknown Woman 2019 Courtesy of the artist and Kate MacGarry London. Photo Angus Mill

An ancient and elemental material, clay is subject to many altered states. Beginning as soft and pliable, often changing colour as well as texture when exposed to air, heat and force. Identity is similarly influenced by a combination of genetic, environmental and historical factors as we adapt to our circumstances and become moulded by our experiences.

Image credit: Matt J Smith, Bird Boy, 2022 © The Artist

Each of the artists featured in Self-Made explore how identity is formed and reformed, touching on aspects of gender, sexuality, cultural heritage and legacies of the past. Each piece represents an intimate interaction between artist and material, moulded, cast and inscribed with new narratives and forms of expression.

Image credit: Phoebe Collings-James In Practice Sculpture Center, 2024

These works remind us that the creation of self-identity can be a challenging yet profoundly empowering process. Encompassing lost, hidden, re-made or re-claimed identities, Self-Made reveals fresh connections with the enduring stories of identity, care and belonging at the heart of the Foundling Museum, while prompting us to consider the myriad factors and conditions that determine our own sense of who we are and the potential to keep reinventing ourselves.

Image credit: Rachel Kneebone Souvenir 2021 © Rachel Kneebone Photo © White Cube (Ollie Hammick)

This exhibition is supported by The 1739 Club

For further information please visit:

https://foundlingmuseum.org.uk/event/self-made-reshaping-identities/

Request Venue Capacity Guide Decorative arrow Sign up to our e-newsletter Decorative arrow Enquire now Decorative arrow
Unique Venues London logo

Unique Venues of London
Henwood House
Henwood
Ashford
TN24 8DH

© 2025 Unique Venues of London
Website: Moore-Wilson