Heirloom

stoneware, watercolour ground, watercolour, gouache, graphite, coloured pencil.

In Heirloom, two narratives grow along either side of the ceramic objects. On one side is the story of a young couple and the wonders and fears a mysterious tomato brings to them. Its seeds begin to sprout, splitting through the skin, growing higher and higher. On the other side of the ceramic vessels blooms a story of a mysterious little girl, living in a strange forest world. As the tomato grows, so does she, with her looks and personality growing deeper and clearer. The three characters story’s grow nearer together, each on seperate sides of the vessels, until meeting in a crescendo of wild plants and colours.

The narrative is an allusion to pregnancy and preparation for parenthood - although it is never overtly discussed. The otherworldly, bizarre feeling of growing and being fully responsible for the development of another being is translated into this strange realm inside a tomato that the little child lives in. 

Parenthood is as remarkable to me as a little girl growing inside of a tomato.

Ceramic pots are described in relation to the body - the belly, the neck, the feet of the pot. The narrative of Heirloom follows a journey of pregnancy, from conception to birth. The illustrations and narrative do not directly describe the changes of the body experienced through pregnancy. The ceramic forms, however, do, through the bodily references within the forms. The objects are all vessels, with space inside to contain and protect. The ceramic vessels mimic the vessel the body becomes during pregnancy.