Cathy Ward frieze

Catharyne (Cathy) Ward was born in Ashford, Kent in 1960 and was educated at Canterbury College of Art and Middlesex Polytechnic before studying under Eduardo Paolozzi at the Royal College of Art in the 1980s, graduating with a master's degree in ceramics and glass in 1988.

After working with Paolozzi Cathy moved abroad and lived and worked in Banff, Canada (as artist at the Visual Fine Art Residency at The Banff Centre) and New York, USA. She returned to the UK in 1992.

She has worked in many media including large scale painting and installation, film and sculpture and has had exhibitions in London, New York and Los Angeles. Her work has also included the cover artwork for Siouxsie & The Banshees's  single The Last Beat of My Heart (1988) , Sunn O)))'s album Monoliths and Dimensions (2009) (Ward's work was the 'Dimensions' on the inside cover) and she collaborated in the background video for the play Hey! Luciani: The Life and Codex of John Paul I, (1987), written by Mark E Smith of Mancunian post-punk band The Fall and later used as the promo video for the single Hey! Luciani.

More recently Cathy has contributed to England on Fire: A Visual Journey Through Albion's Psychic Landscape by Stephen Ellcock and Mat Osman (Watkins Books) and is currently a contributor to the upcoming publication Spirit Worlds by Jessica Hundley, the 6th volume from the Library of Esoterica published by Taschen Books. She is also the London artist-correspondent for the art and culture magazine brutjournal. 

Cathy's connection with Eduardo Paolozzi gained her the commission for this piece, which was part of the refurbishment of the ICAEW's restaurant. Prue Leith's Leith Catering had been appointed in February 1992 to look after the running of the restaurant and the Institute's other catering requirements.

Ward gained inspiration from the frieze around Chartered Accountants' Hall, by Hamo Thornycroft, as is clear by the title of the work. As she describes it:

"It [the central figure] represents the working man. The figure is a combination of the original frieze figures the sculptor Thorneycroft [sic] sculpted which runs around the outside of Chartered Accountants Hall. It was bringing a reference to the tradition of the institute, its building, history, and grounding the central figure as the working man - an earth figure surrounded by two larger ethereal female figures: one representing life, abundance, growth & the other a winged figure representing guidance & protection from the spirit world."

The restaurant, 'Leith's', was officially re-opened by the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Brian Jenkins (a chartered accountant and a former president of the ICAEW) on 23 September 1992.

Accountancy reported "According to Ms Leith, the designers have gone for a 'serious and conventional restaurant' look 'which will not frighten members with too much yuppie jazzdom', but which is also fun - 'witty, modern and stylish enough to encourage them to come'.

"Reactions have been mixed, ranging from love it to loathe it. Lord Mayor of London Sir Brian Jenkins seemed lost for words in trying to explain the sculpture...'that extraordinary thing'... which now stands, he said, where former Institute secretary John Hough used to lunch."

In June 2015 the restaurant, now called 'One Moorgate Place Restaurant' (after a stint as 'Esca'), closed and the space was repurposed as temporary office space. The frieze had already been removed and put in storage after a previous refurbishment. In 2019 the space reopened as the One Moorgate Place Club and the frieze was relocated to the lift lobby outside, where it is hung today.

Unfortunately, the centre piece of the frieze 'the working man', does not survive.

Liberty Realm: works by Cathy Ward (2020, Strange Attractor Press)