artist:
Philip Barnes

project:
Follies Project

location:
various sites, Hull City Centre

date(s):
various dates between 23 May - 16 August 2003

description:
The Follies Project features the creation of a miniature folly, made from card and from found and cheap materials. It will incorporate reproductions and elements of lavish aristocratic mottoes (such as baroque decorative details and courtly paintings) whilst its construction is reminiscent of Pop Art assemblage technique. The folly is portable and will be carried or bowled by the artist around redeveloped and rapidly changing riverside areas in Hull. Photographs will be taken of this performance-to-camera tour, a journey that will be carried out in a sombre yet somewhat absurd
fashion.

link:
http://www.ermintrude.me.uk

Artists Statement

"One of the tragic consequences of an aristocracy on
the verge of extinction, is the appalling reduction in
the number of follies being built. In the 18th
Century, follies were springing up all over Britain as
readily as branches of McDonald's are today."
- from The Chap Almanac, 4th Estate Books, 2002.

The business of building follies was the domain of
individual wealthy men, who were often perceived as
having an eccentric, dilettante bent. The practice was
self indulgent, and the buildings served no other
purpose than to gratify their owners, who often had
whimsical, romantic inclinations. As the satirical
quote above declares, this practice has declined,
along with the aristocracy itself.

Contemporary artists, generally speaking, often occupy
an economic and political position unsympathetic to
aristocratic sensibilities. Yet it has occurred to me
that these folly builders represent a kind of
unfettered, unbridled capacity for realizing one's
aesthetic 'vision', on a small and harmless scale.
In contemporary parlance, one could argue that the new
folly builders are the movers and shakers in the
current drive for urban regeneration. Models and plans
announce at regular (and prestigious) intervals
ambitious schemes to revitalize urban surroundings.
Often expensive and persuasive publicity campaigns are
adopted to herald this revitalizing fervor.

The intention of the project is to draw a subtle
parallel between the archaic English tradition of
folly building, and its contemporary urban-restyling
counterpart; there is an attendant melancholy, too, in
the lonely figure passing through the landscape.
My folly echoes the tactic of imposing one's aesthetic
drive upon the cityscape, although it does so in a
playful (and even futile and ephemeral) manner. A
quiet and modest intervention, and carried out without
persuasive intent, it echoes the romantic artist's
temperament in the idiosyncratic, individualistic
encounter with a cherished place.

© Philip Winclolmlee Barnes, 16th May 2003.

Documentation