Menu

  • Home
  • Stories
  • Gallery
  • Crafts magazine
  • What's on
  • Directory
    • Overview
    • Supporting craft businesses
    • Join the directory
    • Opportunities
    • Craft business resources
    • Craft business booster sessions
    • Crafting Business programme for makers
    • Overview
    • Make First
    • Education
    • Families
    • Participation
    • Craft learning resources
    • Craft careers
    • Craft School: Yinka’s Challenge
    • Young Craft Citizens
    • Overview
    • About the collections
    • How to hire and borrow
    • Exhibitions
    • Curatorial fellowship
  • Collect art fair
    • Overview
    • Our work
    • Our team
    • Governance
    • History
    • Research and policy
    • Diversity and inclusion
    • Current Vacancies
    • Contact us
    • Craft UK
    • Press
    • Overview
    • Appeals and projects
    • Patrons
    • A gift in your will
    • Corporate partnerships

Quick Links

  • Subscribe
  • Opportunities
  • Crafts Council at 50
Home
Login
Crafts CouncilDirectoryKaren Thompson

We Must Fit In

Karen Thompson

Scarborough, England


We Must Fit In (Detail), Karen Thompson

We Must Fit In (Detail), Karen Thompson

In the 19th century, the French ballerina Louise Fitzjames had been unfavourably caricatured as a Dancing Asparagus in a ballet of the vegetables, with 'no body at all... as skinny as a lizard or a silkworm.' Today, a strikingly large proportion of dancers have eating disorders. My response to this site specific exhibition was a sculptural piece involving 'Dancing Asparagus’; it is a representation of today's body size within dance. The desire in the finished piece is to create a feeling of repetition and conformity in size and shape; to present an audition of dancing porcelain asparagus on the stage of the dining table.

We Must Fit In

Karen Thompson

Scarborough, England


We Must Fit In (Detail), Karen Thompson

We Must Fit In (Detail), Karen Thompson

In the 19th century, the French ballerina Louise Fitzjames had been unfavourably caricatured as a Dancing Asparagus in a ballet of the vegetables, with 'no body at all... as skinny as a lizard or a silkworm.' Today, a strikingly large proportion of dancers have eating disorders. My response to this site specific exhibition was a sculptural piece involving 'Dancing Asparagus’; it is a representation of today's body size within dance. The desire in the finished piece is to create a feeling of repetition and conformity in size and shape; to present an audition of dancing porcelain asparagus on the stage of the dining table.

More from Karen Thompson

  • Project

    Goveshy

  • Project

    Trilogy of Death

  • Project

    Farm World

  • Project

    Porcelain Sandwiches

  • Project

    Qwerty Installation

  • Project

    Fragile

  • Project

    Heads

  • Project

    Cups

  • Project

    Pots

Stay informed and inspired

Select an option to receive a newsletter

Follow us

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest

Crafts Council
44a Pentonville Road
London N1 9BY

hello@craftscouncil.org.uk
+44 (0)20 7806 2500

Reg. charity no. 280956

  • Our work
  • Our team
  • Privacy policy