Description
Winged and Gilded Interiors
By reimagining the relationship between nature, ceramics, and the self, I invite viewers to contemplate their own place within the natural world. Winged and Gilded Interiors is a testament to the enduring power of ceramics where the boundaries between self and environment blur.
When asked to create these ceramic figurines in response to the Gardiner Museum’s vast collections – and in this instance the 18th and Early 19th Century European Porcelain Collection – English Porcelain – I imagined the shop assistants who would have been selling the original pieces. I have created numerous porcelain figurines over the past 14 years, many of them as figured bells, sculptural bird and human bodies with porcelain legs secretly positioned within the interior.
Often as artists we don’t get to see our work out in the world, instead we interact with the staff who sell our work, establishing special relationships with them. The Gardiner staff, in particular, have encouraged me over the years in making these figures, or bells as I have also called them. I have, for these new response figurines, imagined the interior life of the women who have been selling these works, both past and present. They are the first point of contact with the outside world, the beginning of the journey for the work, a journey that can span centuries as is the case with the figures from the Gardiner Museum’s Collections.
I selected three pieces from the collection that inspired my three new creations, two based on my long conversation with bird imagery, and one of a scarab. – Lisa Creskey
Figure of a Finch – Dreaming of Flight imagines that the energy and adaptability of the finch is being drawn upon to make a difficult and challenging change in one’s life. – Lisa Creskey
Object Number: G91.7.30
Care & Use: The bell is decorative only. The clapper is not meant to be struck to make a sound, but it is for decorative purpose to feature the legs of the figure.
Material: Porcelain, underglaze, and glaze.
Measurement (in.): L4.7 x W3.5 x H6.7
Weight (lb.): Up to 1
SKU: 950380