Lot 5 - Scarlett Pochet - Ridicule My Pleasures & Pleasure My Ridicules
Upcycled poplar wood, Watercolour
2025
Original Artwork
Curated by Moriah Ogunbiyi
About
Scarlett’s work often weaves together her interests in still life, story-telling and historical fashions, engaging with contemporary politics of sex, power and violence with regards to women’s bodies. Sculptural processes of casting and assembling mixed media including latex, fabric, ceramics, painting and woodwork take place in the fabrication of her pieces; these materials often protrude or encase various bodily forms within.
Her own identity and dual nationality of French & English has started to weave itself into her practice, inspired by the trinkets found during childhood trips to ‘les brocantes’ (carboot sales) in France; she is also inspired by the symbolisms within French historical fashions and objects. Scarlett’s practice is currently focused on the absence, both historically and presently, of garment extensions such as pockets. Sensual and secretive vessels which protect, hide and can be likened to bodily spaces, her research leads her to the political and gender dynamics surrounding the denial of these private spaces in women’s clothing.
Education
2020 - 2024
The Slade School Of Fine Art (UCL), London, UK.
2019 - 2020
The Kingston School Of Art, London, UK.
Group Exhibitions
2025
A Pocket Full Of Plenty, Hypha Studio in Netil House, Hackney, London, UK.
(Upcoming)
House Of Haberdash, Torriano Meeting House, Kentish Town, London, UK.
2024
Antigone Revisited, curated by Marcelle Joseph, Hypha Studios HQ, Euston, London, UK.
Look, The Crypt, Euston Road, London, UK
International Women's Day Auction 2024, organised by Art On A Postcard, The Bomb Factory Art Foundation, Covent Garden, London, UK
2023
Papillon, Dalston Den, Dalston, London, UK
Formas Mutatas, Asylum Chapel, London, UK
Crawl Space, The Crypt, Euston Road, London, UK
Bedrock, The Crypt, Euston, London, UK
2022
Juice Box, RuptureXIBIT, Hampton Wick, UK
Dog Tomb, The Crypt, Euston, London
Fishtank, The Penarth Centre, London, UK
Statement about AOAP Submitted Artwork
‘Ridicule My Pleasures and Pleasure My Ridicules’ takes the shape of ‘the tie on pocket’ (1650 - end of the 19th century), and explores within the painting the later fashion of the small suspended bag or purse, known as the ‘reticule’. The title is a response to the satirical etching, ‘Parisian Ladies in their Winter Dress for 1800’ by John Cawse, from 1799, which satirises the reticule with the French nickname, ‘ridicule’. Scarlett continues to examine from previous works the politics surrounding the absence of integrated pockets in women’s clothing throughout history and topples this absence by implementing several variations of them onto the figure. These functional vessels, in turn disrupt the linearity of the neoclassical dress of the time, dictated by the ‘Tableau Général du Goût, des Modes et Costumes de Paris’ ('The Trends of Parisian Fashion') from 1797. Instead, the pockets permit a certain freedom to carry one’s desires, secret thoughts, personal possessions or objects of security.
With the auction’s theme of ‘Paradise Lost’ in mind, the work shares a common theme of longing; in this instance, the longing for autonomy and breaking away from the rules and regulations imposed upon women’s clothing.
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