Four/Four is proud to present ‘Cater 2 U’, a show by Ellen Angus, revolving around two spheres of her practice: Her work ‘Crème De Co’ (2013), and the much-loved Destiny’s Child song from which the exhibition takes its name.
Instigated in part as a response to Angus being made redundant in her job as a support worker, due to the explicit content of ‘Crème De Co’, the exhibition also presents new work and documented performance created alongside Angus’ sister, Claudia Cumberbatch Chedzoy. These use this job loss, and the 2005 hit, as a focal point from which expands an exploration upon themes of shame as a regulatory tool, submission, control, and self objectification and feminist narcissism which underline Angus’ earlier work.
‘Crème De Co’ itself is described as an experiment in ‘slapstick’ stem-cell technology, exploring societal taboos around self-objectification, bodily matter and its commodification, through the suggestion that the stem cell sector is now experimenting with menstrual blood in the creation of luxury, regenerative facial creams. Alongside this ‘Cater 2 U’ takes popular source material and begins to unravel it through processes of enlargement and repetition. Servitude, submission and normative femininity are subject to an exaggeration which renders them ‘creepy and excessive’, as Angus reflects upon the learned hegemony of the early 2000’s.
Ellen Angus studied at Chelsea College of Art (2013) where she worked collaboratively with Ellie Bradford and Shali Lui under the guise of LEAK. In 2015 she began her MFA at Umeå Academy of Fine Art, being awarded the Kungl. Skytteanska Samfundet Prize and the Verkligheten Prize upon graduation. Solo shows include: ‘A Brexit/No I Mean a Break Up’, Växjö Konsthall, 2019 and ‘Darling You Will Always Win’, Galleri Verkligheten, Umeå, 2018. During her time in Scandinavia, she travelled to the Arctic (Abisko Scientific Research Centre) for the project ‘Meetings Between Art and Science’ with The Royal Academy of Art Stockholm. Most recently she has been appointed as Co-Director of One Thoresby Street, an artists studios and gallery in Nottingham.
