One can’t help but feel affection towards Francis Upritchard’s brightly coloured figures, despite their bloated bellies and gangly limbs. The rainbow palette of the New Zealand-born sculptor’s cast of doll-like characters and effigies echoes the countercultural psychedelia of the hippie era, and is frequently likened to a type of fetishistic folklorism. Although her agenda has long since cooled, in the past, these new age models have been used to frame an agitated address to the colonial legacy of the artist’s homeland. For this new body of work, Upritchard has migrated further east in influence, and it’s possible to detect light references to a collective, generalised imagining of Middle Eastern culture.
Taking centre stage are a staggering martyr, a hooded misanthrope and a reclining multi-coloured Jesus. This motley crew is surrounded by an almost humorous selection of Aladdin-like trappings. One work, for example, sees two grinning camel’s heads sit atop earthenware jugs that have been placed on a wool rug, while elsewhere, jewellery and tiny chests allude to the dusty wares of souks and harems.
Upritchard’s fabulous sculptural landscapes – like the work of Charles Avery – present narrative possibilities that remain slightly removed from our world. Although the figurines are at once ancient and futuristic, there is something ineffably current about her fiction, and it’s clear that this artist pays great attention to the undercurrents that determine our contemporary attitudes. It’s her treatment of the diverse histories and cultural recollections that inform present imaginings, however, which gives these works their impressive durability.