Emma Hart and Jonathan Baldock: Love Life

Love Life is a major commission by Jonathan Baldock and Emma Hart, presented as an exhibition in three acts from 2016 to 2017.

The artists have radically re-imagined the traditional seaside show Punch and Judy, transforming the characters’ puppet booth living quarters into an oversized and darkly humorous place where the ever-present threat of violence acquires a new resonance in an era where cyber-bullying is more prevalent. Love Life is the artists’ most ambitious collaboration to date evolves in scale, form and content in three acts at three venues over a year.

Following Act 1 which opened at PEER, London in November 2016, the Grundy presents Act 2, where the exhibition expands dramatically, filling the Edwardian rooms of the gallery and drawing directly on the history of popular culture in the town in a series of new works and displays. In one striking new work, Hart and Baldock have commissioned Blackpool Council’s Illuminations Department, who manufacture and install the town’s celebrated annual six mile long lighting display, to create a giant new illuminated sculpture. Alongside this will be a new film shown and a special display of vintage Punch and Judy puppets drawn from the town’s extensive collections, providing a contextual and historical background to the new work by the artists.