Huff and Puff

Fiona Candy’s work focuses on the ways that people make and use things; from personal clothing to public buildings, in order to express identity, define communities and generate social life.

This installation may bring to mind the folk story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’: a cautionary tale about life’s inherent dangers. In the story “the big bad wolf” represents the ever-present risk of catastrophe and threatens to blow the little pigs’ houses down, one by one. The differences between the pigs’ lifestyles and by implication their industriousness and social commitment, are symbolised by the houses they each build; one made of straw, one of wood and one of brick.

But here, presented in the affecting intimacy of a gallery, each ‘house’ has been painstakingly crafted, utilising the traditional skills of a time served, local craftsman. Links between house and home; neighbourhood and way of life; individuals and communities are implied. The little houses serve to remind us that the intrinsic materiality of man-made things i.e. their qualities of construction, look and feel, are the source of their capacity to objectify myth, morality, power and social values.

In our era of urban regeneration, the ideologies conveyed by folklore: sociality, aesthetics, craftsmanship, the sensual appeal and longevity of materials, all take on renewed significance for citizens of Preston, as the ‘old’ prepares to make way for the new…

a-brand is Fiona Candy’s ‘own label’ and aims to represent the paradoxical relationship between art and commerce.

Contact fjcandy@uclan..ac.uk