Vallum Gallery, Carlisle. 2 September to 20 September 2024.
Advertising does not sell reality – it sells fantasies. Dreams of what might be. A future always necessarily deferred. A conjuring trick, which, when discovered, does not diminish the wonder of seeing the trick performed again and again.
This installation navigates the relationship between advertising and modern consumer culture.
The work simulates the theatre of a 1970’s dinner party comprising of a dressed table set for six people. The dinnerware is made from terracotta clay in a formal design and decorated in a nostalgic style with colours and patterns evocative of the 1960s and 1970s, overlaid with text and imagery reminiscent of UK food advertising from the period.
Each plate depicts a different aspect of enviable social status promoted by the hosts. The images are predominantly humorous although do include a commentary on gender disparity of the time as well as the role of advertising to promote an artificiality of consumerism.
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.
The dinner set builds on a long tradition of using the ‘best china’, to show-off the hosts’ perceived enviable social status to visitors. The tableware moves beyond function and instead promotes a desirable identity and a chosen lifestyle brand to display to guests. This idea of self-promotion through acquiring objects resonates with advertising methods to establish consumerism at the centre of modern self-expression – where brand is prized over all else.
Current creative practice continues to explore the point where craft meets art – the transition from aesthetic to narrative – where considerations of function and utility become secondary to the communication of ideas.
Recent research takes inspiration from early examples produced by Royal Doulton, Spode and others with their elaborate use of decorative transfers for mass produced tableware depicting idealised scenes. A concept developed and subverted by contemporary potter/artists such as Paul Scott, Ulrika Jarl and Sun Ae Kim. The illustrations are influenced by collage artists such as Martha Rosler and Barbara Krueger with humour masking a social commentary.
The dinner set is made from terracotta clay, coloured terra sigillata, paper resit and digital transfers in a lead glaze.