Archive Mode. Call 2024 All the Fixins: Artists from the South (Juried) ended on 5/10/24, 11:59 PM. Call settings are read only. See Current Open Calls
Thrown, cast, altered and assembled porcelain. Cone 6 electric firing. 2023.
This new series of work represents a break for me: these are the first pieces I have made following an unexpected hiatus in the aftermath of the recent pandemic. It is a thematic break as well: delving into experiences universal and deeply personal that have been brought to the forefront of the past few years: detachment and isolation, grief at the loss of my grandfather, and an increasing shift in my view of fragility as a source of terror rather than a means of appreciative awe. This also includes the first works I have made that are, in essence, devoid of color.
The Victorian Gothic aesthetic has been growing in its occupation of my headspace lately, particularly the mourning jewelry that was so popular at the time. This was largely due to the fixation of Queen Victoria on the loss and memory of her husband: jet jewelry, cameos, black satin and ribbons were communicators of the opulent luxury of mourning: the ability to be consumed by feelings of melancholia at the cost of normal societal obligation.
Here, those elements manifest in forms that are alluringly morbid. The vessels are roped with pearls and bows- hovering somewhere in my mind between girl and womanhood. The cameo hand has been stripped of its flesh to reveal the delicate bones within, and the flowers that surround it are drained of color to a pallid white. The tiny additions both invite you in for a closer look and push you away in their potential for breakage. Though I do not feel this series is a permanent direction for my artistic expression, I have found this evolution necessary and strangely uplifting. In many ways these artworks are my extravagance- a gift to myself: within them is the power to cathartically purge feelings life does not in other aspects afford me to indulge in.
