EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND.- Armour Boys is a new solo exhibition by internationally acclaimed sculptor Laura Ford and will premier at the Royal Scottish Academy on August 12. The culmination of her Scottish Sculpture Workshop Residency in 2004, Armour Boys developed from her interest in the armory displays at nearby Fyvie Castle and through preoccupations of past projects such as 'Wreckers'.

The quiet after the storm. Five small bronze, armor clad figures lie scattered, lifeless. Their limp, twisted bodies seem to have been violently thrown about, discarded and forgotten. A far cry from the traditional suits of armors of museums and grand halls they challenge concepts associated with war. Children's war games become all too real and we are reminded of the plight of child soldiers, and more than that the vulnerability of all children around the world. Another motivation for the works came from a newsreel from Iraq. 'To the sound of gunfire, a father and his son are running across a road together. They seem to reach cover, but as they do they boy jerks and falls to the ground. The camera stays on the father long enough to get his stunned reaction to his son's newly floppy body...' (Duncan McLaren in conversation with Laura Ford). Armour Boys are hugely empathetic works about the sorrow of lost potential and it is their very humaneness which draws on the viewer’s emotional involvement on so many levels.

Laura Ford says of her new project ‘It is hard to believe that the soldier striding forward, engaged in battle, full of adrenalin, when struck down, can become so quiet, so without life, so still. Armour Boys are not only about our tendency to violence but also our sense of invulnerability which is instantly and shockingly reversed in the presence of death.’

RSA Exhibitions Coordinator Colin Greenslade comments on Laura Ford 'She reinterprets our heritage and retells it poignantly and succinctly, dragging age old issues to the fore and suggesting them to us as a comment on contemporary life. An experience we can relate to that has wider relevance than our own history, community and country.'

Laura Ford represented Wales at the 2005 Venice Biennale and recently exhibited at the Hayward Gallery London, Aldrich Museum Connecticut, ICA London, Manchester City Art Gallery, Aberstwyth Art Centre, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Beaconsfield Gallery London, The Dick Institute Ireland, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea. Work in collections include Tate, London and the Arts Council of Great Britain. For more information on Laura please visit www.houldsworth.co.uk

There will be a range of screenings, workshops, talks and events for all ages on the theme of children at war including the screening of ‘Lost Children’ & ‘Rebels without a Cause’ at the Filmhouse and youth rap workshops with former child soldier Emanuel Jal. In association with Amnesty International, City of Edinburgh, National Museum of Childhood, Filmhouse the Scottish Sculpture Workshop. This exhibition is funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The Henry Moore Foundation and the Scottish Arts Council. A catalogue with an essay by Duncan McLaren will be published to coincide with the exhibition. Please check www.royalscottishacademy.org for further details.