La Recherche

This series, made between 2023-24, was inspired by historical objects: mid-eighteenth century French and English ceramics, made just before the Age of Revolutions and charged with significance. I wanted to decode them, work out what they said about the time and circumstances in which they were made.

My Tureen is based on a French, Sceaux Pottery piece of 1755, when the royal Vincennes factory (later Sèvres) had an exclusive monopoly on the use of porcelain. Festooned with swags, Bow & Stern is a reworking of a Bow Factory sauceboat, made in London in 1750. La Recherche, is a reflection on Jean Siméon Chardin’s still life, A Basket of Strawberries, 1761.

Making these pieces was a way of delving into history, but also finding contemporary parallels. The series finished with the (untitled) hourglass, giving form to this idea of the transhistorical.

Enquire