shed (verb)(TO GET RID OF…)

shed (verb) (GET RID OF), 2019
Lumina porcelain (Beurré Bosc pears, carrots, eggplants, strawberries and bowls), antique door, dual-channel video, cabinet, linear actuator
200 x 80 x 120 cm

To shed is to let go. To release. To relinquish. To forget. To farewell. To wilfully get rid of.

Above a tranquil waterway rests an antique door, upon which rests a bowl laden with casts of a fruit or vegetable. The door is a portal of enablement when open and restriction when closed. The fruits and vegetables are both physical nourishment and allegories for personal ideas and memories. The waterway signifies the passage of time.

Alike the shift from nourishment to excess, dwelling on ideas and memories can foul what would otherwise be healthy. Obsession and moderation are not friends. At random intervals the door is activated to shed its load, shattering both the porcelain objects and the obsession they hold.

I am released. I relinquish. I will forget and farewell. I can move on.  

As the objects smash on the floor I become free of responsibilities to these objects as carriers of meanings I want to leave behind, for whatever reason. The work is a further investigation into relinquishing moments of my past through the development of autobiographically inspired healing works. They are a personally motivated art therapy.

However, I am conscious of producing both physical and mental waste with such a work. In response, I aim to reinterpret the shards into a future work that will continue to progress the prospects of healing.

shed (verb) (GET RID OF) 2019 was exhibited as part of C o n s t e l l a t i o n s U n d e r g r o u n d, a CONSTANCE ARI project curated by Priscilla Beck to coincide with the Australian Ceramics Triennale 2019. View the catalogue .pdf here (1.2MB) courtesy CONSTANCE ARI.