Project Statement
Transformation
Crows often represent the intermediary link between worlds: as guides into the afterlife, represent self-knowledge beyond dimensions and can also symbolise transcendence, appearing as harbingers of change. There are myths too, of bad omens, darkness and death surrounding them. Can both be true? As individuals how do we understand and hold dualities like these at the same moment, two truths; about ourselves. It is this marrying of seemingly disparate starting points, light and shadow the conscious and unconscious that was drawn to and hoped represent visually in these sculptural pieces.
Last year I became interested in Jungian psychotherapy, which coincided with a vivid appearance, in a dream, of a crow. In it I was ushering a black crow room by room through a house I’m not familiar with. He was taking his time, pacing deliberately through the doors I held open. He had been imparting knowledge but wanted to leave. His presence was secret. When he reached the back door he transformed into an adolescent boy and left. The duality signified with transformation of a crow to human form fed into my thinking surrounding the conscious and unconscious. I started to see crows everywhere.
Jung placed significant emphasis on dreams and how they unite the conscious and unconscious, it appears to be a way into his theory of ‘The Shadow’, which outlines the marrying of our conscious and unconscious drives and desires.
“ Everyone carries a shadow,” Jung wrote, “and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.”
The encounter of this dark, shadowy part of every individuals personality, according to Jung, illuminates truths that an individual might refuse to acknowledge about themselves. Only when the subject can remove the defense of consciousness will they gain access to the undiscovered in The Shadow, and integrating with the lived life to produce a wider consciousness and a more expansive way to exist.
Process
The contrasting ceramic materials that I’ve used in these pieces is a way I found to recreate the duality that I felt in the dream and the work done uniting my own shadow. The overlapping and inter-meeting of pieces reminds me of the way feathers form. Slip casting is a process used here which lends itself well to creating texture and intricate patterns.
The connection of one’s own personal binary of ego identity: the conflicting stories we struggle to hold within ourselves is powerful. As an artist I would like to lead people into a personal domain where they can consider stories about themselves and unite them.
22nd September - 20th October 2019 | Open Daily 9.30-5.30pm
Ceramics Ireland Selected Annual Members Exhibition will feature the work of makers from the four corners of the country. A diverse range of ceramic practice will be on show including functional decorative, wall pieces and sculptural forms. Selected by an independent panel, the exhibition will feature the work of approximately 35 – 45 makers to be selected from 50 – 60 submissions. There will be something to interest everyone in this exhibition of over 120 pieces. Admission to this exhibition is free.
