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Totem beasts hand carved from porcelain.

STATEMENT

Animals inspire me, but there is a difference between animals as they are and our representation of them. When we depict an animal, we really depict ourselves, and so I believe by making them in clay I am making a totem: a bridge between ourselves and the natural world.

This interplay between ‘the natural’ and ‘the artificial’ is at the heart of my work, as I attempt to explore the shifting edge of ‘animal as animal’ and ‘animal as cultural reconstruction’. Treating human kind as another exceptional beast. Enthralled by our ancestors’ journey from a spiritual to a secular age. No part of our history demonstrates the conflict between spiritual-mind and material-body like the steps taken from church to museum. My totems are both.

PROCESS

While studying for my Masters in Ceramics I developed my process and love of porcelain. Each new piece starts as a prototype sculpted from a rough clay or wax. This prototype is then cast in plaster to create a mould that is later used to slip-cast the same shape as the prototype. This slip-cast is just a basic form. It is in the next stages the individual piece emerges as I hand carve details — sometimes adding, sometimes removing — to sculpt the individual character of each piece. After the work has been detailed it is left to dry slowly before being bisque fired. Next is sanding before a glaze firing, and after that lustres or enamels may be painted as final decoration before firing for the last time. The creation of a new mould is a lengthy process, but it ensures each piece is strong and able to be carved with meticulous detail.

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