Porcelain

Chest 2019

Inspired by forms and techniques found in Ancient Chinese burial traditions, once thought to be mythical and where their meaning has been distorted or lost in time, this hand pieced, tied and sewn, cloth and clay chest and its contents, has been created through a series of repetitious acts, and explores the nature of bilaterality. Its honest materials: cloth, thread and porcelain are used to mislead and subvert; to frustrate attempts at understanding. However, tantalising clues remain; traces of textile in the clay, clusters of loose ends and the imperfections in the tiles and knots. The piece, in a search for truth amongst fragments of fact and misinterpretation considers cycles of pursuit, dismissal and starting over in the territory of knowing and not knowing, the public and private, loss and discovery, the hidden and exposed and memory and forgetting.

Polyseme 2018

This blanket of hydrangea-like pieces forms an expansive Immortelle; an arrangement of porcelain flowers, traditionally used as a longer lasting substitute for fresh flowers, as an act of remembering. Hydrangeas, associated with the desire to deeply understand another, appear apt for this act of remembrance, but the flowers mislead, being ascribed many other, sometimes contradictory, meanings. Similarly, the fragile porcelain surrogates are not as they seem. In attempting to preserve the flowers, they are destroyed and the resulting brittle shells crumble when touched. In the same way, driven by our irresistible desire for answers, the truth may at first seem attainable, but slips outside our grasp, as our memories shift and fade through time. In the repetitious act of creating each piece, the potential for interpretation and misinterpretation is explored. A search for truth amongst fragments of fact, memory and misrepresentation generates an uncertain cycle of pursuit, dismissal and starting over.