Laura Ford was born in Cardiff, Wales, in 1961 into a family of Welsh showmen who travelled the fairgrounds of Wales and the south-east of England. Early childhood memories from this period had an enormous impact in her life as an artist. She studied for her BA at Bath Academy from 1978-82, and completed her MA at Chelsea School of Art in 1984 . She represented Wales at the Venice Biennale in 2005, and her work has been included in many major sculpture shows all over the world.

“When I got the panda it sat around for a long time until I was able to think of something to do that wasn’t so directly prescriptive. I didn’t want to touch it initially because it was so complete. I needed to feel less precious with it, and then I started thinking about the barnacles that I’m very familiar with. I grew up by the seaside and I also go down to the seaside quite a lot. At one point all the barnacles disappeared because of a chemical that was used in marine paint, and now the paint’s been banned all the barnacles are coming back and everything’s starting to get covered with it again. It’s funny because it actually looks really destructive, but actually it’s a sign of healthy water." - Laura Ford