Eating My Teeth

My video 'Eating my teeth' was included in the group exhibition 'A Secret History of Clay: From Gauguin to Gormley’ Tate Liverpool 2004. The exhibition uniquely sought to reappraise the use of clay by significant artists during the twentieth century - from the ceramic vessel to performance and installation art. The curators aptly reconsidered the status of clay as divided between fine art and utilitarian or the decorative arts through the inclusion of Marcel Duchamp’s 'Fountain' (1917), and works by Lucio Fontana, Pablo Picasso, Cindy Sherman, and Jeff Koons. In order to address a more conceptually rigorous deployment of clay in contemporary art, 'Eating my teeth’ was shown alongside works by other young artists such as Francis Upritchard.

'Eating my teeth’ is a video documenting wet clay being manipulated on the body, thus addressing notions of temporality and performance for a medium (clay) often associated with a static object. The video ‘loop’ emphasises repetitive and absurd behaviour, posing an existential query as to the futility of an action that never reaches a conclusion. The video explores notions of bodily transformation, abjection and the idea that dirt is matter out of place. The video continues my questioning of the metaphorical link between earthly material and states of consciousness within my practice.

'Eating my teeth’ was included in group exhibition 'Body-Con’ with Franz West at A-I-T (Arts Initiative Tokyo) which toured art galleries and museums in Japan throughout 2003/4. Catalogue edited by curator Roger McDonald, published by AIT in 2004.

Stills from the video were included in monograph from my solo exhibition at The Pump Rooms Museum, Leamington Spa, essays by Sue Hubbard and Nigel Prince. Published by Pump Rooms Museum in 2004. Funded by Arts Council England.

William Cobbing, born 1974 in London, England, studied at Central Saint Martins College, London, and then at De Ateliers International Artists Studio Program in Amsterdam. He is currently undertaking a practice-based PhD at Middlesex University. He has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally. Selected solo exhibitions include: Netwerk Galerij, Aalst, Belgium (2006); PERCYMILLER Gallery, London (2003); Escape chutes, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam (2002); and Mutations, Stichting Archipel, The Netherlands (2000). Selected group exhibitions include: Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam (2002); 'Body-Con', AIT, Tokyo (2003); 'A Secret History of Clay', Tate Liverpool (2004); 'Wall to Wall', TENT, Rotterdam (2005); 'Over de mensen en de dingen' Z33, Belgium (2005); 'Sunday Screenings', Milton Keynes Gallery (2005); 'The Library of Babel', Courtauld Institute of Art (2005); Early Works, De Ateliers, Amsterdam (2002); and ‘Eating my teeth’ screened by Park 4DTV, The Netherlands (2000/1).

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