Cornford and Cross

Cornford and Cross focus on an art practice that is visually provocative, they want to grab as much of a reaction from the viewer. They develop their work through discussion between themselves, where they focus on a debate, a context, or a site. They never work in the studio during development of an idea, but instead walk around a city and get into a discussion that interests the pair of them that they then choose to turn into an art work.

"Camelot" 1996

Stoke on Trent for "City Limits"

Instead of exhibiting in a gallery, Cornford and Cross wanted to exhibit work in the city centre, to test assumptions and boundaries within art. 

While walking through Stoke on Trent, C&C discovered many odd triangles of grass in the city centre, surrounded by anti-pedestrian paving. Despite the clearly useful paving, it was obvious that the pedestrians had rebelled and were walking all over the grass, wearing it down to the soil. It was also obvious that the pedestrians were disregarded in the city centre because of the paving, which gets in the way of their "desire line" aka the fastest route to where they want to go. To make a comment on this and the privatisation of public property, C&C decided to make the grass a "no zone" and to fence it off. The fencing they chose was galvanized palisade fencing, which is made of torn steel so the public can't climb over. This type of fencing is very common in the UK, particularly in urban or industrial areas. 

After the work was installed there was resistance to the art; the public felt that the council had let them down and were disgusted to learn that it was a work of art as it inconvenienced them and looked "ugly". The work was vandalised by locals and the resistance to the work only seemed to increase as time went on. The installation lasted for 6 weeks before dismantling the fences, later giving the fencing to a local school, giving the art work a practical use in the end.

Another piece they created was "The Once and Future King" that was set in the garden of a grand house in Shropshire. As the pair walked around the garden they were reminded by thoughts of childhood, in particular, the Repunzel story(no idea). The old gardens had brick walls surrounding them and were covered in thick lush grass. Yet they used to be vegetable patches so the pair decided to find out where the well used to be to supply the garden with water. They ended up excavating the well but realised that this would be dangerous to leave open with the public around. To protect the well they covered it in razor wire yet left it tangled to make it appear like a terrifying metal forest, sort of like the dark forests in fairytales that trap and keep the Prince from the Princess. Or something. The tangle of metal sat directly over the well to protect it and was made of barbed tape and anti-healing agents, which made it again too dangerous for the public. As a compromise Cornford and Cross covered the barbed wire in tangled wire to protect the public. The end result was a bowed spherical shape that looked like some kind of strange cloud to me. Upon further discussion, Cornford and Cross revealed that this work commented on the convenience lifestyle , where we go to a shop that has mass produced food rather than going to local shops or growing vegetables ourselves. By protecting the well, they have shown their own thoughts on convenience shopping as opposed to local economy. 

One piece by Cornford and Cross that I really appreciated was "Abolition of Work"(2007), where the pair took the money they were given by a gallery to create an exhibition and changed it all into pennies. They then took all of the pennies to the gallery and created a sort of carpet, where the viewer could walk all over the money the gallery had given to the artists.
They were asked by the Exchange Gallery in Penzance, Cornwall, to create a piece of work. The collaboration focused on the tragedy and loss in ship wrecks in Cornwall's past where goods were plundered. Also copper was mined in Cornwall. Therefore they decided to focus on the idea of copper and goods or currency. They decided to use the production money that the gallery gave them to be exchanged into pennies. The work definitely questions the cost of artists labour and materials.

1 pence pieces are the smallest currency you can get in the UK, with most piggy banks, purses and pockets full of them. While developing their idea, Cornford and Cross found out that 1m squared = £28.71 square of pennies, so they clearly had a lot of money set up on the floor, despite the fall in exchange value. The pennies are a variety of different colours, which lead Cornford and Cross to try and find out why. It turns out that due to devaluation of currency, pennies are not made of copper anymore, just copper plated. The whole floor became a tessellated pattern of pennies that volunteers in the gallery helped to set out due to the gallery space big to turn it into a beautiful mosaic style floor.