‘Colony and Spores’

Developing out from my ‘Curvilinear Constructions’ – where a set of differently shaped ‘slot-together’ components were designed to allow assembly in infinite configurations and on various scales – with ‘Colony and Spores’ I wanted to more directly convey the organic growth patterns of life – originate, evolve, seek, grasp, coalesce, establish – then disperse, reform and renew. The complex interconnectedness and interdependency of all life is also at the heart of the work and to underline this a self-set rule of the construction process was to ensure that every single ceramic element within the ‘Colony’ is connected to at least one other. Only the ‘Spores’ with their smaller number of parts are freed from the larger structure, as in life, to go outward, settle and form new colonies elsewhere.

Early on in the making of the work, I had contemplated setting the entire delicate structure on a shallow reservoir of black oil – to create a perfect reflection that would amplify the visual impact of the structure and at the same time suggest the notion of the primordial origins of life emerging from darkness. However, I decided that this was impractical and so black glass was used to achieve the same effect – without the risk of black oil creeping slowly up the pristine white bone china!