Introducing recent MFA graduate
Sassy Park
Looking for Gold
10 August – 4 September 2019
drinks 4pm Saturday 10 August
Ceramic objects have often been used to carry ideas of the souvenir and there is a permanence to ceramics that lets it live on through time. In figurative works, we recognise humanity, activity and emotion that suit the direct and honest qualities of the material. In this exhibition, Looking for Gold extends the literal meaning, becoming a metaphor for the elusive and vulnerable search for success and attainment whether it be in love, sport, fashion, art or social debate. The everyday things that influence Park are the subjects that find their way into her work. Her ceramic forms referencing a hyper-awareness to historical, material and social contexts engage the curiosities of gender, intimacy, and vulnerability. Deliberately playing with notions of value, ideas of fragility are investigated through concepts of scale, intimacy, and humour. For her it is the quotidian matters that need remembering and commemorating. The figures with their gestures, postures, and facial expressions draw on a deeper level of animated being. The small scale nature of these works draws the viewer in, to look more closely and engage with the object. Displayed together on a table or shelf, the figures and vases interact with one another, bringing an emotive energy to the work.