Accolades and Secrets

I have been exploring through my work the human experience of landscape. We as humans have sourced raw materials from our surroundings for the creation of objects both utilitarian and aesthetic for thousands of years. In creating my glazes I use raw materials straight from the earth.

The recent conflicts in the Congo have been fuelled and instigated by the control of valuable metal ores, some of which I use in my glazing. These same metals are found in almost all modern technology; mobile phones, mp3 players, circuit boards. I was inspired to melt such objects into my glazes to highlight issues of ‘conflict minerals’ and to show how connected to the earth even the most modern gadgetry is.

I have endeavoured to represent beauty, simplicity and hope with a pure white jar. That form and what it represents is still present beneath the potentially destructive path to achieving what we desire. This compulsion has driven humanity to its greatest accolades and its darkest secrets.