25 October–18 November, 2018
Piccadilly Circus
Underground Station

In Pig Latin Library, Claire Barrow re-imagines the vivid visions she experiences  while asleep through a new series of painting and sculpture. Coaxing the viewer into a paranormal dreamworld, the artist at once presents a revealing insight into her subconscious psyche and a seductive spiritual fantasy in which anyone can participate.

At Soft Opening, a symmetrical display of various characters, symbols and repeated motifs accompany an elevated jackal-headed Egyptian god Anubis that occupies centre-stage in the gallery. With each sculpture positioned carefully to mimic a shop window display, Barrow makes her paranormal vision readily available for her audience’s visual consumption. Nestled in the underbelly of the central commercial district of London, the installation continues a consumerist narrative that pervades above ground. Manipulating spatial organisation to engage with a visual language comparable to merchandising, suggests Barrow’s spiritual vision can be bought-into just like everything else situated behind glass. As a result, her sculptures become souvenirs of her outward expression of spirituality. In an exhibition titled to playfully reference a universal secret language shared among children, Barrow tests the feasibility of her superstitions and dreamlike visions on her audience, engendering the nighttime encounters of her subconscious with invigorated meaning.

For Pig Latin Library, Barrow incorporates a diverse assortment of found objects and readily available materials to create compositions, objects and assemblages that simultaneously engage with and depart from the textile designs and DIY aesthetic that reverberate in her fashion design work. The collision of unexpectedly familiar materials merged with supernatural iconography and a shrine-like symmetrical arrangement, establishes Pig Latin Library as an engrossing installation capable of arousing a collective spiritual experience of a deeply personal supernatural vision.

Claire Barrow (b. 1990, Stockton-on-Tees, UK) is a London-based multidisciplinary visual artist. Barrow studied Fashion Design at the University of Westminster. She made her London Fashion Week debut in 2012 and has since strived to explore new and surprising ways to present her hybrid work. As well as working on her own collections, shows and special projects, Barrow has also collaborated with several luxury brands and retailers including Matches Fashion, Opening Ceremony, Joseph, John Smedley and Melissa. Barrow draws from her own experiences and DIY culture to address both modern identity and social issues within her work, applying her art onto everything from clothing to canvas, and within both physical and digital spaces. Her work has received critical acclaim in fashion and culture media press and won her a legion of industry fans.