Jamie Fitzpatrick at Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer 2021

For the 5th Edition of Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer, Jamie Fitzpatrick presents his first outdoor works as a pair of sculptures on plinths that mimic the visual language of figurative authority and the colonial era omnipresent in civic spaces. Fitzpatrick sculpturally assembles broken forms and symbols into an equestrian figurative work of St George, titled 'Prince St Charming Jjjorge', and a military and royal equestrian statuary, titled 'Undegradeable Democritus Rex'. Both are half-size pieces and are displayed on tall plinths; above and looking down upon the viewer.

The form of equestrian sculpture has been used throughout Fitzpatrick's work as a microcosm of society, a formulaic triangulation that progresses from Headpiece; Head; Legs; Horse; to Plinth, a symbolic representation of structural societal hierarchies. Instead of reinforcing the heroic ideals, his sculptures employ a fragmented and glitchy reworking of colonial statuary, honing in on the symbolic tropes and rhetoric employed and comically overemphasise the seductive politico-aesthetic strategies used in public historical monuments of this time.

The works are cast in Jesmonite AC730 using both bronze and pigmented concrete techniques to provide a finish that combines the historically traditional materials of colonial sculpture with periods of intense colouration that are more stylistically associated with the artist's contemporary practice.

Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer reopens in May 2021 with their 5th and largest edition, exhibiting 29 artists. The outdoor exhibition is their most comprehensive survey of contemporary sculpture yet presented, expanding into new areas of our Victorian gardens and inviting more new and varied artists than ever before.

Further information here