Serena Korda
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Serena Korda (born 1979) is a British visual artist. She has made work across a number of disciplines including
performance A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Performance has evolved glo ...
, sculpture, ceramics and
public art Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...
. Her work is interactive and encourages people to explore everyday rituals found from histories and conversations with one another. She encourages her audience to interact and be involved in creating these shared experiences that would usually be passed by.


Early life

Serena Korda was born in 1979 in London, England. She studied at
Middlesex University Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated to MDX) is a public research university based in Hendon, northwest London, England. The university also has campuses in Dubai and Mauritius. The name of the university is ...
, and received her
Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...
degree in Printmaking from the
Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...
, RCA, in 2009. While attending the RCA, Korda won the Deutsche Bank Art Award (2009).


Exhibitions and commissions

Korda's 2008 work ''The Answer Lies at the End of the Line:'' was commissioned by London's
Art on the Underground Art on the Underground, previously called ''Platform for Art'', is Transport for London's (TfL) contemporary public art programme. It commissions permanent and temporary artworks for London Underground, as well as commissioning artists to create ...
and presented in London's
Stanmore tube station Stanmore is a London Underground station in Stanmore, north-west London. It is the northern terminus of the Jubilee line and the next station towards south is Canons Park. The station is located on the south side of London Road (part of the ...
. The work used banners to invite travellers to solve a puzzle, in reference to the 57 Turing Bombes located in Stanmore during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. In 2011, Korda was commissioned by the
Wellcome Collection Wellcome Collection is a museum and library based at 183 Euston Road, London, England, displaying a mixture of medical artefacts and original artworks exploring "ideas about the connections between medicine, life and art". Founded in 2007, the W ...
to create ''Laid to Rest'', as part of the exhibition ''Dirt: the filthy reality of everyday life''. The work employed five hundred handmade bricks, mixed with a variety of substances including human skin and gorilla fur. In 2013, Korda exhibited her work ''Aping the Beast'' at the
Camden Arts Centre Camden Art Centre (known as Hampstead Arts Centre until 1967 and Camden Arts Centre until 2020) is a contemporary art gallery in the London Borough of Camden, England. It hosts temporary exhibitions and educational outreach projects, with a prog ...
and
Grundy Art Gallery The Grundy is an art gallery located in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. Its eclectic programme consists of regional historic to recent contemporary art exhibitions. Opened in 1911, it is owned and operated by Blackpool Council. It is a Grade II ...
, Blackpool. The first performance as part of Aping the Beast included a ritual performed by 25 local school children dressed as ‘
Boggart A boggart is a supernatural being from English folklore. The dialectologist Elizabeth Mary WElizabeth Wright described the boggart as 'a generic name for an apparition'; folklorist Simon Young defines it as 'any ambivalent or evil solitary super ...
s’ – characters from Lancashire folklore. The performance was accompanied by live music from Grumbling Fur. In 2016–2017, Korda was the Norma Lipman & BALTIC Fellow in Ceramic Sculpture at
Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a mem ...
, a residency that culminated in a solo show at
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (also known simply as (the) Baltic, stylised as BALTIC) is a centre for contemporary art located on the south bank of the River Tyne in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. It hosts a frequently changing variety ...
entitled 'Missing Time' (2018). 'Daughters of Necessity: Serena Korda & Wakefield's Ceramics at The Hepworth Wakefield' was exhibited at
The Hepworth Wakefield The Hepworth Wakefield is an art museum in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, which opened on 21 May 2011. The gallery is situated on the south side of the River Calder and takes its name from artist and sculptor Barbara Hepworth who was born ...
, December 2017–July 2018. Korda was asked to select artworks from Wakefield ceramics collection to display alongside her own new and existing works, exploring where these objects sit between function and sculpture. In 2019, she showed her project ''Khaos Spirit'' at
Somerset House Somerset House is a large neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building complex situated on the south side of the Strand, London, Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadran ...
London. Korda's commissions include 'The Bell Tree' for the
National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...
,
Speke Hall Speke Hall is a wood-framed wattle-and-daub Tudor manor house in Speke, Liverpool, England. It is one of the finest surviving examples of its kind. It is owned by the National Trust and is a Grade I listed building. History Construction o ...
(2018), an installation of 300 ceramic bell 'mushrooms' and soundscape audio inspired by the folklore of native bluebells that grow around the ancient oak tree in which the artwork is installed. Other projects include W.A.M.A The Work as Movement Archive, and ''The Library of Secrets'', a mobile library presented at the New Art Gallery in 2008. The work invited participants to leave a secret message in a book for future readers to find. In 2022-23 her work was included in the survey show ''Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art'' at the Hayward Gallery in London with the work ''And She Cried Me A River,'' a giant necklace for an imagined mermaid, first shown at Thomas Dane gallery, Naples in 2022.


See also

* Walkwalkwalk


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Korda, Serena 1979 births Living people 21st-century British sculptors 21st-century English women artists Alumni of Middlesex University Alumni of the Royal College of Art British women ceramicists English performance artists English women sculptors Sculptors from London 21st-century British women sculptors