shrine
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shrines to childhood sweeties, 2010
Inspired by Irish roadside shrines, I'm fascinated by where they appear - at the roadside, at a crossroads or a natural well or spring. With may passers-by, these shrines become decorated with the emblems of prayers and thoughts, wishes, and over a period of time, claim their own identity. I wanted to make a shrine that would reflect a purpose that these have in a secular world: to collect little parts of peoples lives.
Shrines are religious icons, and sacred to me are the sweets that I remember from childhood, with their gory synthetic colours, the overwhelming saccharine flatness and sharp fizziness. Sweets hold a very special place in a child's life - a remembrance of sunshine and happy days; most people have very fond memories of early childhood sweeties and the covetousness of little joys! This shrine is intended to be hung on the wall in a hall or crossing place in the home, or in the kitchen; the containers are functional, evocative to me of birdboxes; the porcelain folds into the layers of a corrugated cardboard box, a metaphor of the transcience of our lives, of holidays, journeys, migration. |
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shrines to domesticity, 2010
I love the romantic notion of 'home', whether it's a place or a person, a particular house or room, a piece of furniture... and moving - suitcases, cardboard boxes... and the way birds migrate and navigate in search of an ideal climate.
Birdboxes are evocative to me of the temporal nature of 'home', and these shrines are intended to gather personal items of the owner with the suggestion of icons of domesticity, a jug or a cup. |
shrines to childhood sweeties (beach huts), 2010
Coming from an Irish mixed religion background, these are secular shrines that celebrate the innocence of childhood, and the reverence for sweeties that I hope we still hold. I have now lived in Essex for nearly 20 years by the sea, and beach huts, a place of refuge and tranquility, are small architectural monuments to the seaside, emblematic of the moral austerity and romance of Victoriana, are now a part of my topography.
I'm concerned with the way that objects live in our homes, and these are private shrines, and rather than the font of holy water inside the front door, or the flickering red light bulb casting shadows over the image of the Sacred Heart, I wanted a shrine in a passing place in the home evocative of happy memories. These are designed to be hung on the wall in a hall or landing area as part of the fabric of a home. I am also concerned with the temporality of birdboxes, a long running concept in my work, which also informs the form and construction of the objects.
As a maker primarily in clay, there are conventions - such as the notion of the vessel, the function of a box, the quality of texture, colour and surface, that I wanted to create as pleasing and satisfying on a more formal level. I also wanted the tactility of a tube, and the playfulness of sticking your finger in a hole. A 'place for everything and everything in it's place' - an edict I was brought up with, and the idea of hiding precious things in plain view...
I'm concerned with the way that objects live in our homes, and these are private shrines, and rather than the font of holy water inside the front door, or the flickering red light bulb casting shadows over the image of the Sacred Heart, I wanted a shrine in a passing place in the home evocative of happy memories. These are designed to be hung on the wall in a hall or landing area as part of the fabric of a home. I am also concerned with the temporality of birdboxes, a long running concept in my work, which also informs the form and construction of the objects.
As a maker primarily in clay, there are conventions - such as the notion of the vessel, the function of a box, the quality of texture, colour and surface, that I wanted to create as pleasing and satisfying on a more formal level. I also wanted the tactility of a tube, and the playfulness of sticking your finger in a hole. A 'place for everything and everything in it's place' - an edict I was brought up with, and the idea of hiding precious things in plain view...