little objects series
Some of my earliest and most significant childhood memories are of fossicking for ‘treasure’ on the beach by my aunt’s house on the west coast of Scotland. Whole days absorbed in discovery, delighting in my finds; shells, rocks, seaweed forms, sea pottery and glass smoothed by the tides, rock pool creatures, hermit crabs as well as the beach and ocean itself.
This was a wild place, a time of wonder and the kind of contentment that comes from such profound absorption. That little girl has never lost her fascination for collecting ephemera. Little Objects is a memory gallery of those treasures that so fascinated me when I was young. These objects are for anyone who was once little and remembers what it was like to live in a world where wonder and magic exist.
Clay and oxides from the earth form these tactile ceramic works. Seed pods take up residence beside starfish, diatoms, cells, bacteria, grains of pollen and macrophages. What is infinitely small, often invisible to the naked eye, inspires forms that fit into the palm of one’s hand. Each form is built by hand, becoming, in their making and handling, an act of meditation and contemplation. Asking to be picked up and held, the forms invite touch and provoke a (re)consideration of our relationship to nature, and our place in the cosmos. They are touchstones that connect us to the special places in our memory.
The ceramic forms are expressive, sometimes informal. Perhaps insignificant or overlooked in isolation, when gathered together, they take on an order, even in their asymmetry. Like the seed, pollen or bacteria, the mass or the multitude ensures success, survival and continued existence.
The ‘multipleness’ of such forms in nature is integral to their being. The repetition of shapes, textures, materials and colour creates rhythms that gesture towards nature’s cycles. Each shape is unique, thumbing the mass-produced, throwaway, consumer environments. Each form is intentionally non-functional, inviting moments of contemplation and stillness, challenging the dominant Western cultural view of utilitarianism and function (i.e. doing) over being. The invitation is to rest in these little objects and notice our utter interconnectedness with, and total dependence on, the natural world around us.