Clay, bronze, wood and fabric
- Artist: Jacqui Poncelet
- Date: 1988
- Medium: Clay, bronze, wood and fabric
- Dimensions: object: 310 x 1740 x 1080 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is “Clay, bronze, wood and fabric” by Jacqui Poncelet. The work hangs on the floor as a rectangular cloth of floral pattern, its edges defining a small stage. On top of that textile sit two objects—one carved in clay, one cast from bronze, both finished with wooden accents—that rest almost like soft flesh against the backdrop. The rigid and malleable materials play off each other: clay gives weight, bronze lightness, wood adds grainy warmth. Together they feel both sculptural and intimate, echoing Poncelet’s 1980s fascination with ninth‑century Indian erotic stone sculpture that she encountered at the British Museum.
The fabric itself is a curtain, a conventional English textile patterned after Persian motifs “literally adapted in an English manner,” as Poncelet has said. She deliberately chose this cloth to give her objects a frame; the pattern frames the piece just as a border would frame a painting. So we have a sculpture that doubles as a canvas, the fabric setting boundaries for the forms and letting the cloth’s shimmer reflect the objects’ lines when seen from afar. The result is a subtle dialogue between craft and fine art—a moment where decoration defines space and surface.
See it in person
Clay, bronze, wood and fabric is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
