Oona Ball

Cauliflower Explosion

The forms of Oona Ball’s recent works are forced into being from casts of plant life (cauliflowers), constructions of explosions (informed by her experience of blowing things up on James Bond movie sets), carvings of bacteria and phytoplankton through images of volcanic action, planetoids, and the work of suicide bombers in Iraq.

Growth or explosion - all a matter of how rapidly we are exposed to the sequence of things.

Significant or insignificant – microscopic pond life or overwhelming life-taking force?

Education

2003-2004

Greenwich University - Post Graduate Certificate in Education - Post Compulsory Education & Training (FENTO)

1994-1996

Slade School of Fine Art University College London - Higher Diploma in Fine Art Sculpture

1989-1992

Staffordshire University - First Class Bachelor of the Arts with Honours in Fine Art Sculpture

1988-1989

Cumbria Institute of the Arts - Fine Art Foundation

1983-1988

Heysham High Secondary School - Seven ‘O’ Levels

Work History

Jan 2007 - Present

Course Co-ordinator: BTEC National Diploma Yr1, Richmond Upon Thames College. Responsible for 85 students in four specialisms: Fine Art, Graphics, Fashion/Textiles & 3D with specific responsibility fr delivering teaching & assessment across the Fine Art curriculum.

2003 - Present

Associate 3D lecturer London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London. Delivering teaching & assessment across the 3D curriculum & researching the different applications, features & chemical makeup of non-toxic & biodegradable ‘green’ plastics

Aug 2006 - Present

Launched Jam & Spoon- purveyors of cast silver jewellery & curious objects. Exhibiting & selling at various shops in London a collection of ‘Ordinary People’ jewellery & solid cast silver birds skulls, sea urchins, wasps & beetles

Aug 2004 – Dec 2006

0.75 Fine Art Lecturer BTEC National Diploma course at Richmond Upon Thames College. Delivering teaching & assessment across the Fine Art curriculum

May 2004 – Aug 2004

Sculptor on Tim Burton’s remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Responsible for the production of a large scale set comprising of a river bed, infinite bridges, geometric mounds and other forms to describe an oompalumpa landscape

Oct 2002 – Aug 2003

Self employed sculptor working on a varied range of projects. Designed & project managed the production of a 1m diameter, transluscent rubber sphere for artist Maria Cheveski

March 2002 – Sept 2002

Sculptor & Special Effects assistant on James Bond – Die Another Day (credit). Coordinating a team of 4 sculptors in the production of an outdoor model landscape set of a demilitarized zone, in 4 scales across an area of approximately an acre. The model was then blown up in a series of rapid, multiple explosions.

Aug 2001 – Feb 2002

Buyer & propmaker on Harry Potter 2 - The Chamber of Secrets (credit). Responsible for the production of various props including professor Snape’s magic wand, the nimbus 2001 firebolt broomstick, magic potion goblets, a bludger bat, a quaffle and a giant sized kettle

June & July 2001

Designed & produced an intestinal parasite sculpture for artist Eric Fong

July 2000 – May 2001

Sculptor & modeller on Harry Potter - The Philosophers Stone (credit). Responsible for the design & production of a 15ft x 8ft model (based on the interior of the roof of Durham cathedral) of Hogwort castle’s great hall

Employment experience prior to Sept 2000

Self employed sculptor involved in a variety of short & long-term projects including:

45ft high cartoon character, millennium carnival floats for Disneyland, Paris

Astronaut equipment for Madam Tussauds

Designed & produced a prototype concrete form to be installed at pavement level in Kings Cross functioning as an underground gallery

Designed & produced bespoke bathroom fixtures & fittings using cast silver & exotic woods for Deborah Nagan Interiors

Produced moulds & bronze & silver casts using the lost wax process for Crucible Foundry in Battersea

Mouldmaker, wax worker & spruer for Bronze age sculpture casting foundry

Previous teaching experience prior to 2000

Visiting artist at Cumbria Institute of the Arts & Wirral Metropolitan College of Further Education

Lecturer to undergraduate students at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London

Visiting artist Lectured at 12 art institutions in and around Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin, whilst participating in an artists exchange with Artemesia Gallery Chicago and Transmission Gallery Glasgow. BBC2’s The Late Show filmed this project

Exhibitions

2007

Ordinary People jewellery collection, Idol, Hackney Wick, London

2006

Drawn, Group exhibition Gallery 29, Vyner Street, London

Vyner Street Festival, outdoor exhibition, performance, live music & poetry

2005

Vyner Street Festival, outdoor exhibition, performance, live music & poetry

2003

Cargo, solo exhibition in the back of a transit van parked on Vyner Street for the duration of the Vyner Street Festival

1998

Rack, Solo exhibition, Limehouse Gallery, London

1997

Members exhibition, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow

The Philladelphia centre for Woodcrafts – photographic installation

1996

Postgraduate exhibition, Slade School of Fine Art, London

1995

Modern Art, Group exhibition, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow

1994

Transmission@Artemesia, 5 British Artists, exchange exhibition, Chicago, Ilinois

Awards

Royal Academy of the Arts award for the practise of Fine Art

Slade Bursary awarded for the continued research of Fine Art

Publications

Oona Ball at Transmission Gallery, Turning Points Magazine, (summer issue 1996) front cover & pg 35 essay by Richard Hooper