Simeon Barclay is interested in how we construct and perform our identity based on collective memories. Working in a diverse range of media, Barclay’s work engages with aspects of aesthetics, often transforming gallery spaces with colour, light, and industrial materials. Central to his works are the references to popular culture during his formative years in Northern England, including aspirational images of footballers and actresses, as well as objects such as cars and dolls. Barclay’s consumption of popular media made him question societal and gendered expectations from his position as a youth working in the manufacturing industry. Producing works that activate complex cultural histories, Barclay explores the role of the diaspora in British culture that is constantly evolving.
In 2022, Iceberg was commissioned by South London Gallery as a part of Barclay’s solo exhibition, In The Name of the Father. In Iceberg, Barclay presents a puppet of himself, encased in a tinted Perspex cube. Sandwiched between a dog kennel and a chicken coop, the cube plays on the tropes of minimalist sculpture. Informed by his interest in the conflation of Pop and Minimalism, Barclay considers what it means to bring content into the latter’s empty containers, drawing on notions of visibility and concealment, optics, self-perception, and helplessness. The puppet, a superficial object with no agency over its own form, is a recurring symbol in Barclay’s works. Dressed in Elton John’s 1980 Donald Duck costume, the puppet is an allusion to the vaudeville and variety performance of the British TV culture of Barclay’s childhood. It comically conveys how outlandish fashion can enable both hyper-visibility and invisibility, as a means of rejecting dogma and enabling self-reinvention.
Following exhibitions in significant institutions like Tate Britain, Huddersfield Art Gallery (Kirklees Museums and Galleries) is looking forward to showcasing Barclay’s work in his hometown’s collection. The collection at Huddersfield Art Gallery is continually expanding to be more representative of the diverse communities of Kirklees in preparation for the re-opening in 2024, which will see the creation of a Cultural Heart including the provision of a new art gallery.
