Art & Culture
ARTIST AT WORK
No.40: Victoria Jardine, Cutting Ties, Stoneware Coil Pot, Vintage Bookbinder’s Thread, Bobbin and Dressmaker’s Scissors, 27cm H, £880
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ictoria Jardine is a studio ceramicist whose obsession with the vessel form sits at the heart of her practice. Her latest series of vessels continues her new exploration of ways in which pots might operate as sympathetic conveyors of quite private narratives. ‘When potters talk about pots, we use very anthropomorphic language. A pot has a foot, belly, neck, shoulder and lip. These very ‘human’ references reveal something of the relationship between mankind and vessels. An ancient notion of ‘pot’, that vibrates through every culture from the moment we first learned to shape mud with our hands. It is this very potent language that, I believe, gives pots unique agency as storytellers. ‘I have often talked about my work as
6 | Sherborne Times | March 2022
autobiographical… a constant making and re-making of myself. The new ‘Bobbin Pots’ examine some of the narratives of my own childhood and the stories and histories that I have, at times, felt bound by. But they also provide the playful opportunity to rewrite those stories, to reframe the narrative… to remake myself.’ Victoria’s new Bobbin Pot Series will be on display at Jane Shaw’s Studio in May, as part of Dorset Art Weeks alongside some pieces from her lockdown project, ‘Wound Series’. victoriajardine.com Dorset Art Weeks 14th - 29th May dorsetartweeks.co.uk
