Vallum Gallery, Carlisle, November, December 2024
My practice continues to explore the point where craft meets art – the transition from aesthetic to narrative – replacing function with the idea of function through more relaxed forms. I experiment with materials and techniques to add colour and pattern to produce an aged patina which plays with time and memory. I use this language of nostalgia to engender a sadness and longing about the social and environmental decline of our age and a feeling of solastalgia for the future loss of the life we know.
The work comprises of three large hand built bowls decorated with different colour dots of terra sigillata slips and digital transfers. The decoration shows semi-autobiographical images and text representing key memories from my childhood. The overall design illustrates how memory is disjointed, conflicted and messy but has a rich and comforting quality. A haven to retreat into when despair at the current state of the natural world is overwhelming.
Nostalgia for the patterns and colours of early childhood memories from the 1960’s and 70’s creates an original style through experimenting with materials and techniques to add colour, pattern and figurative elements to functional pottery. This language of nostalgia delivers a commentary on the enduring role of advertising as it continues to embed consumerism into contemporary culture and accelerates social and environmental decline.