Alma Berrow: The Opening of a Crisp Packet

LAMB Gallery is pleased to present The Opening of a Crisp Packet – A Show about Storytelling, an installation of new ceramic works by Alma Berrow (b. 1992, United Kingdom). For her third solo presentation with the gallery, Berrow begins with a familiar vision: friends, old and new, glasses raised, stories exchanged, crisps shared. The crinkling foil, spread flat on the table, signals all hands to reach and partake in an unspoken ritual of togetherness. From this everyday gesture, the artist’s initial invitation unfolds into a more lavish offering: a journey through memories and mythical spaces, first greeted by ancient wells brimming with water before moving through to a feast at the heart of the exhibition. A table set for one, yet speaking to many, Berrow shares her tale in the tradition of storytelling, often amid gatherings, maybe accompanied by the rustling of a freshly opened crisp packet.

This new body of work is a culmination of the artist’s year-long exploration of English, Celtic, and Irish folklore and mythology. Berrow reflects on the fluidity of storytelling as tales and myths are rewritten, distorted, or gradually fade into obscurity. Yet they leave imprints on our consciousness, passed down like an inheritance. The artist’s medium, clay, mirrors this process. Malleable and tactile, it holds traces of each touch, storing knowledge from the body and hands in the way folklore stories become impressed upon us. Berrow’s “fake-real” ceramics reflect a tension between fragility and endurance, resonating with the delicate balance of what might decay or be preserved through time.
Stepping into the central room of the exhibition, visitors encounter a set dinner table, an array of vibrant vegetables with their echoes of mythologies, surrounded by the gentle drip of candle wax. Abundant with folkloric references, salmon, an enduring symbol of wisdom in Celtic mythology, accompanies quail eggs as delicate emblems of fertility and femininity. Berrow’s fascination with food as a metaphor takes a playful form in these uncanny ceramic recreations, where the masculine implication of a pickle meets the potato or patatina, often linked to female anatomy. Interwoven with these mythological elements are personal stories, including memories of asparagus feasts from childhood, freshly picked from the artist's mother’s garden.

The final room of the exhibition invites visitors to consider their own place within the artist’s unfolding narrative. Berrow engages in deep self-reflection, tracing how these myths have shaped her and those around her. In this space, devoid of color and distraction, she extends a moment of calm and clarity. A set of stools encourages active engagement, offering a space to pause. On the wall, a mirror is framed by the ancient ouroboros bearing the inscription: “as above, so below, as within, so without.” The ancient emblem of perpetual renewal emerges as a guiding motif, much like storytelling itself, endlessly consumed, reshaped, and reborn.

Alma Berrow (b. 1992, United Kingdom) creates works often inspired by intimate day-to-day experiences from her formative years. Her nostalgic and sometimes uncanny artistic vocabulary is inextricably linked to personal memory. Berrow’s practice re-investigates the genre of still life through the portrayal of contemporary taboos and zeitgeists revealed by the ubiquitous pocket litter left behind. Berrow succeeds in her ability to transform ordinary objects into art pieces that are both humorous and other-worldly beautiful. Berrow lives and works in London, previously attending Falmouth University for Art and Textiles. It was over her first lockdown, due to Covid-19, that she began to explore ceramics as her primary medium. Since then, Berrow has participated in a number of solo and group shows, including “Seeing Red” Philips, London (2024); “Echo” LAMB, London (2023); “Smooth Sailing” Sapling, London (2023); “From Dust you came and to Dust you shall return” Galería Hilario Galguera, Mexico City (2022); No More Than Five, LAMB, London (2022) In 2021, Berrow was part of Sotheby’s (Women) Artists auction, with her work presented alongside works by Lavinia Fontana, Dorothea Tanning, Cindy Sherman and Helen Frankenthaler.