Annie Morris

Talia Branchmoore

London, UK

Annie Morris, London Studio, 2017. Attribution: James Petts, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Modern art is often criticised as simplified and purposeless, exemplifying society’s ability to over-analyse and give meaning where there is none. And the work of multidisciplinary British artist, Annie Morris, initially washed over me in the same contemporary wave.

She creates large stacked spherical figures made with foam and cast in bronze which balance disjointedly upon one another. Initially, aside from the bright colours and striking scale of her work, they seemed aesthetically intriguing but conceptually vacuous. Her use of vivid pigments, including captivating ultramarine, viridian and ochre, create bold and striking figures, but failed to stimulate further questioning behind the seemingly natural images they evoke. I have always been drawn to large scale works and sculpture, as I feel the overbearing presence of an artistic image magnifies the message it attempts to relay. But in this case I was only met with a sort of confusion, and curiosity as to why such heightened fame can be granted to such elementary imagery. 

However, after being lucky enough to attend a gallery opening she shared with her husband- renowned photographer and painter, Idris Khan, I was entrusted with the deeply personal and poignant concepts Morris’ work represents. As previously mentioned the spherical figures have a ‘natural’ quality to them, with their smooth curves and simultaneously disordered shape. Morris explained that these spheres are her own visualisation of a pregnancy bump, exploring the variation and natural beauty of each woman’s individual experience. Although, she then went on to convey how the stacked structure of each piece means the meaning of each lump is altered, with each individual sphere now depicting a factor that comes to play in the production of a successful pregnancy. The varying colours, sizes and angles that the spheres contain, makes their balance seem entirely unlikely, and yet the structures still stand. This aims to embody the seeming impossibility of a baby being born, as every chromosome and minute detail must fit into place in order to prevent a miscarriage, and when they do a unique, original and imperfectly-perfect baby is born. Struck by this analysis, my view of her work restructured completely, and I was flooded with questions and curiosity on how she came to this unlikely message. However, her truth was both deeply personal and heartbreaking, as she shared her own experience with miscarriage and how it allowed her to have more value and understanding for the wonder of successful pregnancy. 

Morris’ work has taught me to always enter the world of modern art with an open-mind, as work that appears one-dimensional often contains an extensive inherent backstory. And while clearly extremely personal, I believe it is essential for artists to explore and reveal their own experiences in the same way as Annie, redefining something as heartbreaking as miscarriage into a celebration of the beauty and complexity of pregnancy.