LR Vandy was born into a family of Nigerian-Irish descent in Coventry, England in 1958. She is known for her distinctive use of model boat hulls, transforming them into intricate sculptures that resemble African masks. Her work, deeply rooted in her Nigerian-Irish heritage and personal experiences, addresses themes of migration, exploitation, and the historic and contemporary echoes of the Atlantic slave trade.
Artist LR Vandy was born into a family of Nigerian-Irish descent in Coventry, England in 1958. Her father, a design engineer, exposed her to the processes of construction and destruction from a young age, which helped to give her the confidence to handle diverse mediums and to not be intimidated by ambitious artistic endeavours. Vandy studied Graphic Design and Printmaking at Camberwell College of Arts, London before completing an MA in Furniture Design at the Royal College of Art (RCA), where she cultivated a profound understanding of design and craftsmanship that later influenced her artistic practice. Vandy’s career has spanned multiple creative roles, including work as a jewellery designer, where she crafted pieces for prominent figures and productions such as John Galliano and the David Bowie film, Labyrinth. Her expertise also extended into set design for major televised events, including the MTV Awards, showcasing her ability to blend technical skill with artistic vision.
Her artistic practice is deeply rooted in her heritage and personal experiences. She has become widely recognised for her unique approach to using the hulls of model sailing boats, which she transforms into intricate artworks resembling African masks. This concept originated when she found a model sailing boat at a car boot sale and was particularly inspired by how the underside resembled a mask. Her transformed hulls are adorned with diverse materials, ranging from metal spikes to horse hair, each element carefully chosen to enrich the narrative. Her themes often address painful subjects such as migration and exploitation, tracing the historical echoes of the Atlantic slave trade and reflecting on contemporary issues of human trafficking and forced migration. Vandy’s approach creates a juxtaposition between the aesthetic allure of the sailing boats and their grim historical associations, inviting viewers to engage with deeper, often unsettling realities. Her debut exhibition of these transformed hulls at the October Gallery during the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London in 2018 was a sell-out, and she continued to explore similar themes in 2019 at Get Up, Stand Up at Somerset House, a major exhibition celebrating decades of Black creativity across various fields.
Vandy's work also includes larger pieces, such as Superhero Cog Woman, exhibited at Frieze Sculpture 2019 in London, which challenges the underrepresentation of women in sculpture and celebrates female form and empowerment. Alongside this, she has expanded her exploration of feminine themes with These Women series, whose 21 dynamic sculptures each present a distinct variation of bold geometric elements. The series, including works such as the striking Dynamo Woman, a spiralling metal sculpture inspired by the Greek queen Dynamis, extends her dialogue on women's empowerment through artistic representation of strength and agility.
Vandy continues to use a range of objects and materials that are both conceptual and visual. Her work with rope, inspired by the proximity of her studio to a historic chandlery, explores the material's dual connotations of binding and freedom, and its historical connections to empire and slavery. In the artist’s own words, ‘rope has such powerful symbolism, positive and negative, constructive and destructive: the force of these opposing ideas helps to create a sense of tension that can be imagined within the work’ (Althea Talks). These themes are also present in her Railway series, where she uses old model railway tracks to comment on the hidden human costs of transportation systems. Dancing in Time: The Ties That Bind Us (2023), a poignant outdoor sculpture created in collaboration with Chatham Historic Dockyard’s chandlery for the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, stands as a powerful testament to the resilience and cultural continuity of Black women. Utilising dance as a metaphor for resistance against oppression, this 4.5-metre-high rope installation at Canning Dock embodies the dualities of colonisation and regeneration. Inspired by Barbara Ehrenreich’s exploration of dance as a form of communal joy and resistance to social control, Vandy has crafted a dynamic and interactive piece that invites viewers to physically and reflectively engage with themes of liberation and cultural resilience. Considering the sculpture, Vandy has stated, 'I am not interested in making something inert, I want movement, and movement often implies tensions.' This philosophy is evident in her approach, where she explored the textures and movements of rope, considering its stiffness and flexibility with temperature changes, aiming to capture the inherent tensions of history within a figure that resonates with movement. Exhibited at the October Gallery in London in 2023, the sculpture encourages a deep interaction with its themes, challenging viewers to consider the past's impact on the present and future. Vandy is a regular contributor to 1:54 Contemporary Art Fair in London and New York. In the UK public domain her work European (2015) is recorded as being held in the British Museum Collection though it is has not been located on the museum's website.