What emerges when playfulness meets memory, and imagination is allowed to roam freely? Eleanor Carlingford’s second release of 2025, Toys Out Of The Box. Featuring 9 new oil paintings and a number of drawings. The works took shape through experimentation, improvisation, and a willingness to follow where imagination led. Each quirkily titled work reflecting a game or story from childhood.
“I started playing with scraps of fabric, zips, pieces of wool and ribbon and some more substantial pieces of material – something I had printed from a series of my own drawings transformed through Adobe Illustrator”.
“I fashioned 3 stuffed figures which were redolent of my life and yet were toys. They appeared to take on a life – or rather an atmosphere of their own. I was transported to games of my childhood. I wondered to myself whether, as I child, playing with stuffed toys, I imagined myself inhabiting the games and stories inside the ‘souls’ of the toys. In adulthood, I certainly imbued these stuffed people with thoughts, feelings and memories which are uniquely personal to myself”.
The playful presence of Eleanor’s handmade figures endures, inviting viewers to consider their own relationship with imagination, memory, and the tactile pleasures of making. They remind us that creativity is not left behind in childhood; it evolves, gathering new layers of meaning, emotion, and reflection along the way.
You can find all the work in the gallery and online now.
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