The Maker

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Elin HughesJane Phillips Award

02 October - 13 November 2021

Piecing together fragments from a range of eclectic influences, I create mischievous vessels which explore personal and Welsh identity and the role of skill in today’s society. I manipulate clay as a metaphor for the continually shifting natures of these identities. 

Combining elements from Victorian era ‘Gaudy Welsh’, American Abstract Expressionism and British country pottery traditions, I rip, fracture and reconfigure wheel thrown forms. I approach making as unselfconscious improvisation, nurturing that sense of childhood curiosity from when my awareness of individual identity first started to develop. These ‘Grandma Punk’ pots combine kitsch patterns from historical Welsh ceramics with forms that reject pretence and refinement. They embrace irregularity and uncertainty, joy and humour; values I view as central to our identity.

  


 

Launched at Mission Gallery in 2011, the Jane Phillips Award is a memorial to Jane Phillips (1957-2011) Mission Gallery’s first director. The award is intended as a legacy to Jane’s passion for mentoring and nurturing talent, working with individuals at every level - offering opportunities to students as well as artists at the beginning of their journey. Opportunities that are further strengthened by working with Mission Gallery’s team, Swansea College of Art UWTSD and elysium gallery.

This showcase is part of a larger exhibition celebrating the success and accomplishments of the previous ten years. 

For more information about the Jane Phillips Award, click here

 

Image: Tribute/Teyrnged #5 (2020), Majolica glazed terracotta, 22x17x17cm

 

 

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