The Repulsive Flower
2020
“ When I started this project I knew that I wanted to discuss gender differences in ceramics history, and in some naive way I did not think that I was a part of the problem I want to discuss. As a start, I began looking at what has been feminine coded within the late history of western ceramics, while doing this I made the horrible realization that I do not value this kind of ceramics.
I was investing women’s role in the ceramics production and the decoration of domestic ceramic vessels. I was painting a botanical pattern on a vase when the pink flowers filled me with fear, I suddenly started to feel ashamed of the things I was working on; I did not want anyone to see my sketches and try outs without me being present, so that I could explain that there actually was this great conceptual idea behind it and this was not my real artistic style.
I often work from traditional porcelain, but I have always added contemporary elements such as cigarettes and leopard prints to make it feel “cooler”. I say that I work with traditional porcelain, but I have unconsciously neglected a huge part of the field, I’ve chosen the few things that suit my taste and the rest is forgotten, by doing this, I am also affecting what part of history is worth remembering.
I choose not to show my work on a traditional plinth, since my project is concerning the objects which didn’t make it to the fine art galleries, it would feel contradicting. Instead I am presenting them tightly packed together in an old wooden factory storage shelf. The shelf refers to the making of the object and production for the domestic space, and in the same time they look stored away. In my head, I am imaging that they are standing in the basement of a porcelain manufactory, left behind after they closed down for good. When they closed, no one saw the value in these vases and they were left there together with a piece of the history to be forgotten.”
