Abigail Fallis studied silversmithing and metalwork at Camberwell College of Arts and considers the making process to be a crucial element of her practice. She works with diverse, often recycled, materials including papier mâché, everyday objects, fish skeletons, textiles and bronze. Fallis refers to her sculptures as thinking tools and her work is characterised by a quirky sense of humour coupled with a powerful commentary on the environment and our consumerism-led society.
Abigail Fallis was Pangolin London’s first Sculptor in Residence and worked for a year from the studio at Kings Place on a new body of work that formed the basis for her solo show Fallis in Wonderland. Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s classic Victorian novel Fallis talks about the show:
What intrigued me most was Carroll’s humour and love of nonsense language and the absurd surrealist distortion we experience through dreams and nightmares so beautifully illustrated by John Tenniel throughout the book. As well as Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece I also drew on the Surrealists for visual inspiration. Whilst Lewis Carroll preceded the Dadaists and surrealists of the early 20th century they shared an intimate link between liberating imagination and the mind and using their subconscious dreams and nightmares to create their fantastic works.
Fallis’ work first captured the public imagination in the nineties with her commentary on the ‘Cool Britannia’ movement and a pair of framed hand stitched Union Jack Y fronts, entitled Cock-Eyed Jack. In 2009, a public sculpture by Fallis was installed in Central Square, Newcastle, entitled DNA DL90. Standing at a monumental 9-metres high this double helix of shopping trolleys commented on contemporary consumer culture and the implications of scientific discovery.
Fallis has exhibited widely throughout the UK and her work can be found in a number of public and private collections including Parabola Land Ltd, Hix restaurants and Damien Hirst’s Murderme Collection. She lives and works in Gloucestershire.