Billie Bond MRSS
Stoneware
H83 W33 D28cm Resin metal composite, 24 ct gold leaf, steel scaffold pole, pine scaffold board Edition 12 An iconic contemporary face of the street hipster, perched upon a scaffold support. Part of the Perfect Imperfection collection, rather than being healed, he is the healer, the urban renovator and regenerator. However, the glimmering gilding is only skin deep
Ceramic
H48 W22 D24cm Bronze Unique A fleeting moment.... Exhibiting at Sculpture at Doddington Hall and Gardens July 16 - 11 September 2022
H31 W18 D25 cm Glazed stoneware, fragments 19th century flower encrusted porcelain, epoxy, 18ct gold leaf sold (private collection) Exploring ideas of fragility and resilience and the healing power of nature
2018 Black Stoneware, resin, gold Unique sold (private collection Australia)
H33 W30 D25cm Bronze Edition 1 of 8 Exhibiting at Sculpture at Doddington Hall and Gardens July 16 - 11 September 2022
Ceramic
Profile
My figurative work, in particular the portrait, is concerned with identity and a personal obsession of revealing the
concealed, repairing the broken and exploring ideas of duality.
I try to translate an inner being through a disrupted surface, creating new and different visual conversations.
Processes of destruction and repair investigate aspects of trauma and healing, rejuvenation and change.
From figurative realism to material led abstraction I am discovering ways of paralleling the process of making with
altered states and adapted minds in a quest to explore what it is to be human.
Biography
My figurative work, in particular the portrait, is concerned with identity and a personal obsession of revealing the concealed, repairing the broken and exploring ideas of duality.
I try to translate an inner being through a disrupted surface, creating new and different visual conversations.
Processes of destruction and repair investigate aspects of trauma and healing, rejuvenation and change.
From figurative realism to material led abstraction I am discovering ways of paralleling the process of making with
altered states and adapted minds in a quest to explore what it is to be human.
Born in Northumberland in 1965, grew up in Essex and continues to live there now. An early career in nursing gave Billie an appreciation of human anatomy, which she considers sensitively in her figurative representations.
In 2018 elected as a member of Royal Society of Sculptors. 2019 just completed a large international collaborative Kintsugi commission - ‘Breaking Depression’ with Janssen EMEA (Johnson and Johnson) and Gamain – Europe. Also in 2019 Bond was shortlisted for the NHS Mersey Care, Rowan View Hospital commission.
Billie has completed an MA in Sculptural Practice from Essex University (2016). She gained a 1st class Honors’ Degree in 3D Design & Craft followed by a PGCE with Distinction in 2012 at Colchester School of Art. Her 20 years experience as a designer-maker includes designing children’s furniture, interiors, interior decorating and painting murals. During studies, her creative ideas were expressed in the form of figurative sculpture. She has guest-lectured in portrait sculpture at The Art Academy, London as well as running her own sculpture classes.
Her work, ‘A Portrait of Chelmsford’ is in the Chelmsford Museum collection; the museum also currently has selected work from Billie’s portfolio on continuous exhibition.
In 2009 Billie sculpted her sister, who has Downs Syndrome, on the 4th Plinth in Trafalgar Square as part of Anthony Gormley’s ‘One & Other’. The sculpture highlighted the importance music and dance has in her life.
She won the Pure Arts sculpture award 2013, with the winning piece ‘A Link With the Past’ being exhibited in a curated space at the Saatchi Gallery, London as part of the Strarta art Fair Oct 2013 and is now part of the Birth Rites Collection formerly at Salford University and now at Kings College London.
Billie was commissioned to create a Lionel Riche caricature portrait for Channel 4 Alan Carr’s Chattyman.
A two-week internship at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, assisting Dr Jon Wood in the research of Self-Portrait Sculpture is the beginning of an academic path which Billie will be further involved with in the future.
Exhibitions
2019 Chelmsford Museum, solo exhibition The Clinker Connection solo
2019 The Minories Alumini exhibition
2017-18 Thompson’s Gallery
2017 Creative Debuts London
2017 Wadhurst September Art Show
2017 Gallery in the Garden Perfect Imperfection, Migrant Material solo
2017 Riflemaker, London Perfect Imperfection – The Art of Healing solo
2016 Flux Exhibition Trewman Brewery
2016 Gallery in the Garden
2016 The Minories Being There MA Show
2015 The Minories Pathways
2015 Firstsite Open
2015 Gallery in the Garden alongside Anita Klein
2015 Clock Tower Gallery Waxing Lyrical Hylands Artist Studios Group
2015 Clock Tower Gallery Love Our New Gallery Hylands Artist Studios Group
2014 Hylands House Sculpture Trail Group
2014 Mall Galleries, SWA Group
2014 1066 Gallery, Battle Group
2014 Sladmore Contemporary FACE14 Group
2013 Saatchi Gallery, Pure Arts winners curated space, Strarta Group
2013 Powdermills Hotel Pure Autumn Art Fair Group
2013 Chelmsford College Imagine Group
2013 Sculpt Gallery Captured Group
2012 Sculpt Gallery Woman Past & Present Group
2012 Designer Crafts at the Mall Galleries, London. Group
2011 The Pie Factory, Margate Who Are We Anyway Solo
2011 Candid Arts, London Group
2011 New Designers, London Group
2011 Great Waltham Art Show, May Group
2010 Cuckoo Farm Studios, Essex. Group.
2010 Moulsham Mill craft centre (part of Chelmsford Arts Trail). Group
2010 Chelmsford Museum (part of Chelmsford Arts Trail) Solo
Collections
Birth Rites
Chelmsford Museum
Publications:
Perfect Imperfection – The Art of Healing (2017) Bond, B. Dr. Jeremy Spencer. Blurb
Inside Out – Representations of the Self Billie Bond (2016) blurb
The State of Art: Sculpture & 3D (2015) Barehill publishing
Society of Portrait Sculptors 2014
500 Figures in Clay (2014)) New York: Lark Crafts
Modelling and Sculpting the Figure (2012) by Tanya Russell, London: AC & Black publishers
Awards
Selected FACE 2020 Society Portrait Sculptors
Pre selected Columbia Threadneedle Prize 2018
Short listed Birth Rites Collection 2015 with A Link With The Past
Firstsite Collectors’ Award for research 2014
Selected for Society of Portrait Sculptors annual exhibition
Pure Art Sculpture award 2013
Residencies and Internships
2019 Brian Alabaster bronze foundry residency
2016 Henry Moore Institute researching self-portrait sculpture
2015-16 Gallery in the Garden, Great Saling
2012 Chelmsford College as part of the AA2A scheme
2010 Chelmsford Museum ‘A Portrait of Chelmsford’ Part of Chelmsford Arts Trail, involving
members of the public.
Employment history
2012 – Present Self-employed sculptor and lecturer, founder www.essexsculpture.co.uk
2004-2009 Self-employed painter decorator and mural artist.
1991-2004 Founder and partner of Billie Bond Designs.
1988-1989 Travelled.
1983-1988 Mid Essex Health Authority and Private sector. Enrolled General Nurse
Qualifications
2016 MA Sculptural Practice
2012 PGCE with distinction
2011 BA (hons) first class, 3D Design and Craft
Teaching experience
2014 to 2015 Colchester School of Art: Lecturer of Sculptural Processes for Higher Education
2013 to present Essex Art & Sculpture Classes. Owner – teaching sculpture privately
2012 Colchester Institute. Lecturing Fine Art & 3D Design year 0 degree students.
2011 The Art Academy. London. Guest Lecturer, teaching portraiture sculpture.