Lamenting Mud (2022)

exhibited at Salt Space Gallery

porcelain, underglaze, glaze

A ring of porcelain teardrops sit on the floor forming a small cairn surrounded by concentric circles. Stone cairns were once markers of death in Scottish Neolithic culture which provided a burial place to protect their dead and the objects once significant to them. They were, and still are today, a visual celebration of this past life and the hope of what was to follow.

In the modern day context of a climate emergency, this shape mimicked in teardrops highlights the constant human-centric understanding of the world around us. Our reliance on climate change as an outlet for our own grief in the western world is becoming even more prominent. Combining these icons of sadness, celebration and death aims to question if this grief is really ours to wallow in, and what the hopeful potential of a world without the colossal impact of humanity might be.