Penniwiser New

The dancing clown, done as a shelf piece. Horror's most-quoted circus performer works because he is assembled entirely out of things that ought to be friendly: a ruffed collar and pom-poms lifted straight from a Victorian pierrot, a jaunty stance, and a grin stretched a good deal further than a face has any business going. As a subject it is the silhouette that does the work — hunched shoulders, oversized head, the tilt of a performer mid-address. That makes it a rewarding sculpt for a painter, since the whole effect hangs on the face, and a cabinet of vinyl-style figures gains something from one piece that unsettles its neighbours. Three files, aimed squarely at display: a horror shelf, a film fan's desk, or the row of figures that ends up above a home cinema.