Pot Head (1)

Medium: Clay, Gesso, Charcoal, Pencil, Ceramic Pot

The first of a collection of small sculptures with heads emerging from inside ceramic pots or jars.

Made from air dried clay and finished with charcoal and pencil. The head fits into the rim of the small ceramic pot and can be removed.

Their distorted faces appear from the rim of the pot like ectoplasm released from a funeral urn. The idea for the Pot-Heads started with thinking about archaeological digs from pre-Christian eras where found pots reveal the ancient funeral practice consisting of cremation on a pyre with the ashes buried inside a funerary urn.

The works play with the idea of the body replaced by an empty container and of the soul being trapped inside domestic objects.

The expression on the uncanny faces seem angry or uneasy as if they have been disturbed from their sleep.

The work is part of an ongoing interest in human remains, bog bodies and funeral practices.