UNDERDOG
Underdog is apart of a series of large scale ceramic forms, exploring enduring themes of the human condition, kept alive and available to us through the history of art. Much of our collective history comes from the artifact that art is. Ceramics is such an old story and archival medium that it is exciting to continue to explore this through this.
This piece draws on very specific techniques in combination, available only through the collaborative process that is Rosy & Rich. It starts in art history, a perception, a sharing, a conversation and argument, often leading to germination stages of extended periods of time.
The form is constructed through wheel throwing and hand building techniques in clay. What follows is a surface response where graphic ideas are etched and painted, and surface, colour and sheen bounced around between clay and glaze for several seasons and multiple firings before becoming set as a stone. In this crucible of to and fro between Rosy & Rich, surface and form, past and present, art and craft meet 1260 degrees Celsius to melt into an abundant, sumptuous, overflowing, generously adorned function, ornamentally speaking.
For my sweet puppy Cerberus a faithful friend to Hades, guard dog of the underworld becomes through the ages misunderstood, even vilified because of the appropriation and twisting of ideas meets contemporary pop culture signifiers in an anthropomorphic tradition of totem ancestry crashing us into contemporary global social political cultural climes of control through misunderstanding and vilification, Underdog an urn.
Underdog - finalists in the Wallace Art Awards 2020 Stoneware clay, underglaze, glaze, enamel and gold lustre - 1080 x 500 x 500mm
Photos by Ellie Smith Photographer
