Cold Comforts
curated by Amber Creswell Bell
2017
Cold Comforts
"People ask the way to Cold Mountain
but roads don't reach Cold Mountain
In summer the ice doesn't melt
and the morning fog is too dense
How did someone like me arrive?
Our minds are not the same
If they were the same
you would be here."
- Han Shan
The works created for Cold Comforts explore the relative concept in an emotional and philosophical sense, finding metaphorical connections to the harsh and isolated physical landscapes of the Antarctic.
The vessels are isolated as singular masses - not dissimilar to the human condition - and will never be absolute outside of themselves. The glazed surfaces are evidence of the entropy between solid, liquid, and gas; Shino layers crack and fall away, copper vaporises to emit an ice-blue flashing on the perimeter of a black crater, and belts of salt deposits erode the clay body beneath.
The vessels sit physically in solitude, yet - seemingly separate - they draw a multitude of parallels purely from enduring the same destructive elements; not unlike the human condition.