"The work that I’m presenting in this exhibition has come from a period of making  between two separate locations. Whilst I was visiting Blackpool to source inspiration, I was also garnering lots of influence from  my environment in Sheffield and through the processes of making the pieces. The work has this connection between these two  locations but it doesn’t belong to either fully.

 

When I was working towards exhibiting the pieces, I wanted to visually show this  connection through the curatorial choices we made in each exhibition. The pieces in  Blackpool sat within the context of the labour of that location. Displayed on industrial  dishwasher racks to pay homage to the service and leisure industries. Seen in a transition between an arrival or departure that was never defined. 

 

The pieces here at Bloc Projects also contain that unsettled nature. They sit within units  of display, designed to reference household cabinetry, but also transportation, with material connections to travel crates. The work is presented in a vision of transition. As  the second exhibition, referencing this through display feels appropriate, as it provides a context not only to the journey between the exhibitions but also to the context of  the pieces. A return back to their location of production but also a collection of souvenirs from somewhere else. 

 

Some of the pieces in this exhibition have had strong curatorial shifts from the previous  exhibition, specifically the white Sugar Rock plates. These pieces were positioned in Blackpool as being in the process of cleaning, whether the food was waiting to be  removed or the plates had been cleaned leaving their surfaces white. At Bloc the  plates have risen to a higher status, presented against a background of strong blue with a border referencing the applied design choices on commemorative plates.  These white plates, removed from an environment where their real-life counterparts  can be found in any sea front store, find a new context as treasured objects. A comment on the process of souvenir creation, where the mass produced can become treasured.

 

The pieces included in this exhibition take inspiration from many sources. Each ‘plate’  asks the viewer to consider function, or lack there of. By presenting plates that mimic  the extravagant design choices of traditional ceramics. To the plates that play off the  commemorative, decorative object of function. Others simply highlight the multiple and personal adaptations that occur through the continual and everyday use of  plates. Each in a rendition cast in Jesmonite, the material choice of the work removes any viable function from the sculptures. 

 

Mainly there's a partnership in the work, an understanding between two driving forces.  In The plate as an object, between two seemingly disparate concepts, decoration  and function. Commemoration and disposability. Presented in two exhibitions pairing each location with the other through a body of work which relied on both for its creation."