Conversations in Tile
The dichotomy of tiles continues to fascinate me. They adorn our most private spaces but also our most public spaces. They are a symbol of domesticity, traditional female roles of cooking, washing and cleaning but making them is a craft traditionally considered a male trade. They are the hardest of work surfaces but they are softened by decoration. They are brittle and fragile objects but an incredibly strong surface.
They are the sterile hosts to our most filthy habits and activities; our stains and germs washed away before anyone need know.
Closed Doors
Stoneware tiles with underglaze (2021)
Dirty Laundry
Stoneware tiles with underglaze (2021)
Exploring the spaces between the masculine and feminine, public and private, decoration and function in traditional handmade crafts.
As.. as Him
Soneware tiles with underglaze and glaze decoration (2020)
Autobiographical tile composition exploring girlhood identity, chaos and confusion.
Txt Msgs
Stoneware tiles with mishima, underglaze and glaze decoration. (2021)
These tiles reveal personal text messages received by me, partly obscured by cropping and graffiti style decoration. Striking a balance between private and public, internal and external, intimate and distant connections
Tiddling for Minnows
Stoneware tiles with underglaze and glaze decoration. (2021)
This project explored ideas of women as community storytellers, bridging the gaps between different generations of villagers via social media comments, on old photographs shared on a local history village facebook group (click on images to expand).
Desk Stories
Stoneware tiles with mishima and glaze decoration. (2021)
Graffiti conversations.
Grown over time, between strangers with various pens.
Hints of Truth
Stoneware tiles with underglaze and glaze decoration. (2021)
Primary truths are simultaneously obscured and revealed.
Pilot
Broken stoneware tiles with underglaze (2021)
Navigating the cracks in the pavements and the bumps in the road.
The Holy Trinity
Stoneware tiles with sgraffito and 24ct gold (2022)
35 years ago, my Mam gave my siblings and I a list of three things to remember - things to remind her to get when we got into town. We're all a little bit competitive so this became a challenge between us - who could remember all three things by the time we got to town...then by the end of the day...then by the end of the week and on and on for the next 35 years and counting. Those items were 'Baby Bio', 'Coffee Filters' and 'Home Quotations' (even Mam doesn't recall what that last one was about).
May they be with us always,
and also with you.
If Destroyed Even More True
Stoneware tiles with underglaze and glaze decoration (2021)
Secrets or insults on this dirty toilet wall? IDEMT - If Destroyed Even More True was used in graffitti during the 90s, usually the work of immature teenagers who wanted to insult each other. If they added IDEMT onto the insult, the victim couldnt erase it for fear of making it even more true than it was before.