Ceramics

Inspired by a visit to Lisbon, I am painting stoneware tiles with cobalt oxide.  The tiles are part of my installation work Afterwards.  The images support my narrative describing the relationship between horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus), Red Knots (Calidris canutus), my childhood memories and pharmaceutical use of their sky blue copper-based blood.

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I set myself a challenge with the creation of my "Wampum Belt".  Wampum is the Native American name for the beads hewn from the the whorl of the indigenous North American channeled whelk shell, and the quahog or Western North Atlantic hard-shelled clam shell. The beads were often referred to as Native American currency, and were woven into patterns to form belts.  The belts were used in storytelling and also described agreements, treaties and relationships.  There were protocols around reading the belts: they either were suspended from a stick or placed in a stone-bordered circle on the ground. One bead typically took a full day to create.  I chose to make my beads from porcelain, another valued material.  I designed a die cut to extrude long tubes which I cut and turned in the drying process.  Once fired I had to build a loom and learn how to weave the beads into the design I created.  The belt is part of Afterwards, and described as a replica of a real belt that has been returned to the First Nations People. as a commentary on "museum culture" and the theft of cultural sacred objects.

The alchemy of the kiln transforms the textile pieces into pieces with a marine aesthetic.  The pieces start life as a quilting component known as a 'Suffolk puff' or 'yoyo'.  I envision quilting or sewing bees of women collectively creating domestic housewares.  Women, especially those in vulnerable communities will be called upon to take leadership roles in a changing climate.  I use Parian slip to represent the starkness of the resulting biodiversity.