Oona Ball is an artist and prop maker. She studied fine art at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.
Oona began her career working in a bronze casting foundry as a wax worker and mould maker before working in the film and television industry making (and painting) props, models and sets for films including the Harry Potter and James Bond series. From 2004 to 2017 she was also a part-time lecturer in 3D on various courses at the University of the Arts London.
In 2017 Oona moved from Hackney to Hastings. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and her work has been included in exhibitions at Hastings City Museum and art Gallery, Art Fair Cologne, Transmission Gallery Glasgow, Artemesia Gallery Chicago, the Greenwich foot tunnel elevator and the V & A, London.
She currently works as a freelance sculptor / prop maker / Scenic painter across London and the South East, working to private commission and making props, models and sets for film, TV, theatre, shop and museum display.
Since working on the sets of films such as the Harry Potter and James Bond series Oona has been fascinated by the illusion of reality we see on film which has been created by the use of sets and props. In a film environment nothing is as it seems: objects that appear to be made from cast iron are actually made of foam and are light as a feather, an utterly convincing weather-worn wooden beam is in fact made of rubber. It is this visual trickery combined with an interest in process and materials that informs her recent practice.
In film the illusion is often one of a complex and fantastical world in which the film medium keeps the audience at an unapproachable remove. In a museum or art gallery environment the physical work can be considered much more closely by a viewer, its materiality scrutinised. In Oona’s case there is no wish to create a fantastic world but rather to make an illusion of the mundane and everyday.
Contact
