These ceramic padlocks derive from the contemporary Artist’s larger Chez Nous project, which exhibited in Paris at the Place du Palais Royal as the city of Paris coincidentally closed-down for Covid 19. The lock house Mariscal created for the public artwork was built from fencing panels recovered from two bridges over the Seine covered with padlocks left by lovers. These small referential sculptures operate as the larger formal public work by asking viewers “why has the padlock, symbol of oppression and confinement, paradoxically, become the symbol of eternal love? Is love a link or a chain? Is the house, a refuge or a prison? Is the padlock a symbol of attachment or imprisonment?”

Mariscals ceramic locks were included in our online You and Yours exhibition, and another exemplary work, The Queen, was included in our 10 Year Anniversary show, Time in two directions.