Ty Locke: Hand Me Downs

For his second solo show at Copperfield, Ty Locke gives a first impression reminiscent of an auction presentation at a bankrupt stately home. Chandeliers hang over suits of armour, but these remnants are not enough to make a home and their materiality betrays them. From cigarette filters to Poundland party platters, the works are fabricated from cheap, readily-available items but through intensive labour. As the closest thing Locke has to an heirloom is an addiction to nicotine, he set about making his own, with 20,000 threaded filters hanging over the scene in the form of a chandelier and a rizla paper echo of an antique carpet below.

Family, memory, class and coming of age have preoccupied the artist in developing the exhibition, as he began to see art school friends inheriting legacies, nest eggs and memorabilia. In the absence of real heirlooms Locke reflects that, when collected, these works might eventually become someone else’s real inheritance, consistent with the wry sense of humour that has helped him laugh his way through a complicated childhood.

Bulging photo albums echo nostalgic picture frames stacked on the floor containing the same absurd, repeating image and surrounded by cardboard packing boxes. The boxes wait to be filled with these aspirational objects, or perhaps we have caught someone mid-pack, preparing to move home. They are littered with shipping labels referencing some of Ty’s twenty childhood addresses. As the child of a single mother with seven children, Ty’s family was often at the top of the council house waiting list, resulting in a constant state of uncertain but exciting transition, bouncing across Kent until Ty eventually relocated to London to pursue art.

Free

Wed – Sat, 12 – 6 pm