In 2010 Ann was invited by the United Nations to help raise awareness of current issues through her art. The completed art work was presented to the UN at the Human Trafficking conference in Luxor Egypt, December 2010. Ann was commissioned to make The Royal Jubilee Banner for the Queen in celebration of her Diamond Jubilee. The Royal Jubilee banner hung from the stern of the Royal Barge ‘The Spirit of Chartwell’ as it made its journey up the River Thames from Battersea to London Bridge on the historic occasion of the Thames Diamond Jubilee procession, 3rd June 2012.Ann’s work is exhibited internationally and she has fulfilled many private and public commissions including the large scale public artwork ‘Manhattan Mettle’ for The W Hotel, Hoboken, USA, as well as major artworks for The Waldorf Astoria, The Alpini Gstaad, and The Chiltern Firehouse.
In autumn of this year a solo exhibition of Ann’s new work will be held at Paul Smiths Melrose Avenue Gallery, Los Angeles. She will also be revealing a major new ‘button work’ at the Haberdashers Livery Company, commissioned by the Lord Mayor of London for his inauguration.
In early 2020 Ann will be launching several new artworks at Christies, London.
The use of discarded, found and multiples of objects is a fundamental element of Ann’s practice. All objects are saturated with cultural meaning, which, as an artist she seeks to explore, unravel and investigate. Mundane objects like safety pins, buttons, cutlery and tableware come with their own readymade histories and associations which can be unravelled and analysed if rearranged, distorted or realigned to give them new meaning as sculpture. Ann’s self portrait ‘Ruysch’ is a modern day memento mori (Latin for ‘remember you will die’). Inspired by Dutch still lives of the 16th and 17th century, the pictures team with precious objects testifying to the pleasures of life and the flow of time, such as a pocket watch, a pewter mug, a vase of flowers, a set table.
In her self portrait ‘Ruysch’ (2019) the flowers are constructed from silver plated spoons, pewter tankards, silver vases and plates – the contents of a 16th century Dutch still life reassembled in another dimension and time. The title ‘Ruysch’ is derived from the celebrated flower painter of the Dutch Golden Age, Rachel Ruysch.
