Statement

I have recently graduated from UWIC, Cardiff. I gained a First class Hon degree in Ceramics. I will be exhibiting some of my degree show show work in a pop up gallery in the Morgan Arcade during the Cardiff Design Festival. This event takes place during the first two weeks of October 2010.
Below are images of my degree show pieces, five works of terracotta and one of porcelain. These share a helmet form and narrative. The helmet is a metaphor for the neighbourhood I live in, the shards the communities that have come, gone and still exist. They are life size pieces using a limited colour palette; the natural colours of the clay are used to enhance intensity and clarity of shape. The jagged texture co-exists with the burnished smoothness of these masculine forms to evoke emotions of conflict, strength and protection.

The work exists as a memento of our local history, its struggling evolvement and fragmented adaptation to change. To be viewed and interpreted much like an artifact in a museum. Each piece encapsulates a vein of the narrative. Although created from the same mould, the various sharded vessels are a deconstruction of the form.
Upturned the helmet loses its domination to become an enticing protective vessel. In some pieces layer upon layer of shards question the integrity of the outer form. The porcelain form is the purest deconstruction. The shards exposed, fragmented. The two halves pulling away from each other, a metaphor for the dynamics of
the communities.

http://trishspence.moonfruit.com/
http://www.cardiffceramics2010.com/