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Statement

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               Today, much is understood about contraception and childbirth. Yet significantly less is taught or researched by medical professionals regarding menopause—a complex phase in a woman’s later life, notably associated with the lack of a monthly period. However, there are more than thirty differing symptoms that can persist for decades. As many women remain in the workforce into their 60s, there exists a frustratingly wide gap in knowledge, a lack of empathy from employers and limited options for treatments from healthcare staff, exposing a much broader problem in the workplace as women all over the world are kept at a disadvantage compared to their male counterparts of a similar age.

 

A UK Government Policy report, “No Time to Step Back: the government’s Menopause Employment Champion,” authored by Mim Davies MP and published in March 2024, and “Menopausing,” written by Davina McCall and Dr Naomi Potter and published by Harper Collins in 2022, are armed with statistics and a wealth of empowering information. They emphasise the need for society to reconnect and care for women through this challenging era.  Nurturing the skills gained from raising families so they can forge fulfilling and meaningful careers.

 

Combining my research into ceramic decals, the Willow Pattern from Spode Pottery in Stoke on Trent, with Paul Scott’s blue and white subversive plates and Sir Grayson Perry’s green vase “Poverty Chinoiserie” 2008. Reading Elaine Scarry’s “The Body in Pain”, published by Oxford University Press in 1987, also fed into my work and ignited the start of my final year. 

 

My work delves into the interplay of complementary and opposing materials. Explicitly drawing attention to the moments when women begin to underperform in the workplace due to premenopausal or menopausal symptoms eclipsing their abilities. These changes can manifest slowly and negatively impact women's dependability to do their jobs, isolating them and putting them at greater risk of being overlooked for promotion, in line for redundancy, or even dismissed. 

 

The kitsch-style blue and white digitally produced water-slide decal transfers, images of domestic chores and other responsibilities performed predominantly by women are grouped and decorated on the glazed surface of a large ceramic platter. This resembles Katrin Moye’s work “A Menopause in Majolica” (Collect 2024) and takes inspiration from Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party (1979, Brooklyn Museum of Art). Focusing on the perceived status quo for the ageing female population in Western cultures. It rests at an angle on a metallic snaking blade and functions as a pedestal. It coils and interlaces with the pinstripe fabric-covered plinths with its cuffs, pockets, and lapel features, providing a quick visual link to industry and authority.  On the inward-facing blade’s surface is a derogatory word two separate senior managers from industry-leading corporations referred to concerning female employees’ behaviour during the change. The outward-facing blade represents the image corporations wish to convey, yet menacingly, it hovers over the slackened and diminished hot pink female body parts; the serrated edge and sharp point poised over the sculpture to be cleared off the edge of the platter, representing the underhandedness of the capitalist workplace, symbolising the questionable practices in some professional environments, ones with targeted policies, menopause champions, and employee training on menopause. These corporations continue to pay lip service to the physical and mental challenges faced by over half the population and, in doing so, perpetuate the cycle.

 

Challenging societal norms and initiating dialogue to raise awareness of the injustices faced by women as they navigate their changing bodies and mindsets is essential. Acknowledging that this can often be difficult to manage, everyone needs to recognise that women in the workforce should not face these challenges alone. It is no longer acceptable for them to be isolated, marginalised, and made to feel self-conscious about the natural evolution of their bodies. I predict menopause themes will become more prevalent in art over the next decade, particularly among artists who forged careers in the 1970s and 80s.  

      Reading​

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  • Paul Greenhalagh - Ceramic Art and Civilisation                                           Inter-library loan for Dissertation

  • Paul Scott & Terry Bennett - Hot off the Press                                               University Library for dissertation

  • Stephen Dixon - The Sleep of Reason                                                          University Library for dissertation

  • Breaking the Mould new approach to ceramics                                            University Library for dissertation

  • Claire Ireland - Surface Decoration for CERAMICS                                     Personal for dissertation 

  • Grayson Perry - The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman                                University Library for dissertation

  • Paul Scott - Ceramics and Print  second and third editions                          Personal for dissertation 

  • Contemporary Ceramics                                                                                University Library for dissertation

  • Disobedient Objects                                                                                      University Library for dissertation

  • Breaking the Mould British Art of the 1980's and 1990's.                              University Library for dissertation       

  • Patricia F. Ferguson - Pots, Prints and Politics                                              Personal for dissertation  

  • Alison Briton - Seeing Things                                                                        University Library for dissertation 

  • Angela Phillips & Jill Rakusen - Our Bodies Our Selves                               Lent JB  

  • Thinking is Making - Objects in a Space                                                       Personal 

  • Kevin Petrie - Ceramic transfer printing                                                        Personal for dissertation 

  • Grayson Perry - Smash Hits                                                                         Personal for dissertation

  • Jacky Klein - Grayson Perry                                                                         University Library for dissertation 

  • Graham Collier - Form, Space and Vision                                                    University Library for dissertation 

  • Nina Power - One Dimensional Woman                                                       Tutorial recommendation

  • Nina Power - What Do Men Want?                                                               Further reading

  • Rebecca Solnit - Men Explain Things to Me                                                 Further reading

  • Rebecca Solnit - The Mother of All Questions                                              Further reading

  • bell hooks - Teaching to Transgress                                                             Philosophies & Theories Module Reading

  • Elaine Scarry - The Body in Pain                                                                  Tutorial recommendation

  • Nancy Fraser - Justice Interruptus                                                                Further reading

  • Henri Lefebvre - The Production of Space                                                    Reading List

  • Gillian Rose - Love’s Work, Paradiso                                                            Tutorial recommendation

  • Gillian Rose - Visual Methodologies                                                              Personal

  • Rebecca Solnit - A Field Guide to Getting Lost                                             Reading List

  • Russell Tovey + Robert Diament, - talk ART                                                 Personal

  • Phaidon's Vitamin C Clay + Ceramics                                                           Personal

  • Bernard Leach - Hamada Potter                                                                    Personal 

  • Bernard Leach - A Potter's Book                                                                   Jo Taylor's recommendation (Thrive Mentor)

  • Kyung An and Jessica Cerasi - Who's Afraid of Contemporary Art?            Tate St Ives

  • Ceramic Review (Monthly subscription)                                                        Jo Taylor's recommendation (Thrive Mentor)

  • Print Matters (Monthly subscription)                                                              Tutorial recommendation

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      Influential Exhibitions ​

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  • Spode Works Museum, Stoke on Trent

  • Emma Bridgwater, Stoke on Trent

  • Gladstone Pottery, Stoke on Trent

  • Pitt River Museum, Oxford

  • Yoko Ono, Tate Modern, London

  • Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

  • Ceramic Art London, Olympia, London

  • Women in Revolt, Tate Britain, London

  • Bristol Print Fair, Bristol

  • When Forms Come Alive, Hayward Gallery, London

  • Collect - Somerset House, London

  • Hastings Contemporary, Sussex

  • Strange Clay, Haywood London 

  • Frameless, London

  • Van Gogh Immersive Experience, London

  • National Portrait Gallery, London

  • Summer Exhibition, RA, London 

  • The Leach Pottery, St Ives, Cornwall

  • The New Craftsman, St Ives Cornwall

  • Porthminster Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall

  • Ai Wei Wei, The Design Museum, London 

  • Woolwich Print Fair, London 2022, 2023

  • Open Studios Hampshire and West Berkshire

  • School of Art, Reading Degree Show 

  • Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirror Rooms, Tate Modern, London​​​​​

Influential Artists

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Clay/Sculpture             

  • Sir Grayson Perry                                  Hayward Gallery, London                                         Decal, society, cultural & political messaging

  • Paul Scott                                              Stoke on Trent                                                          Research for dissertation 

  • Emma Bridgewater                                Emma Bridgewater Factory, Stoke on Tren             Modern application of decals to functional ware 

  • Judy Chicago                                           The Dinner Party - Brooklyn Museum US                   celebrates 39 women with a unique place setting  

  • Katrin Moye                                              A Menopause in Majolica, Collect London                Ceramics and Menopause themes

  • Tara Donavon                                        Exhibition - When Forms Come Alive, Lond.            Scale, repetitive forms, precision

  • Olaf Brzeski                                           Hayward London - When Forms Come Aliv             Destruction, explosive, the chard remains

  • Matthias Merkel Hess, US                     Online Research                                                       Repetition of forms, close observation

  • Steven Edwards                                    Collect 24, Somerset House, London                       Making and ruining work to create art   

  • Zoe Preece                                            Collect 24, Somerset House, London                       Simply magical illusion with clay & glaze           

  • Lindsey Mendicks, UK                           Strange Clay Exhibition & Online Research             Theatrical installation, freedom to play

  • Liu Jianhua, China                                 Strange Clay Exhibition & Online Research             White porcelain, repetition, staging

  • Ai Wei Wei, China                                  Exhibition, London                                                    Scale, repetition, curation  

  • Rachel Kneebone, UK                           Strange Clay Exhibition, White Cube, Online           Large scale sculptures in porcelain

  • Rebecca Warren UK                              talk ART                                                                    Large scale sculptures with unfired clay

  • Anthony Gormley, UK                            Tate Exhibition & Online Research                           Large-scale sculptures of abstracted figures

  • Jo Taylor                                                "Thrive" Mentor & Author “Hand Built Ceramics       Collect 24, techniques, advice

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Print

  • Claude Flight, UK                                    Author

  • Cyril Power, UK                                       Online Research

  • Sybil Andrews, UK                                  Online Research

  • Lill Tschudi, Switzerland                          Online Research

  • Anita Klein, Australia                               Author and Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy, London

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Photography

  • Hannah Wilkes                                        Series of photographs taken of herself while battling with cancer - Intra-Venus 1992-1993

  • ​Jo Spence                                               Series of photographs of her experience of dying 1992

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Painting      

                      

David Hockney, UK                                       Online research                                                          composition inspiration for A1 

Tracey Emin, UK                                           Online research - Article in the Guardian                   May 2023, Angela Giuffrida 

Frida Kahlo                                                    The Broken Column (1944)                                        fear, pain, isolation, tears

Current Education

2020 - 2025                                                     2022 - 2025

BA Fine Arts

School of Art, Reading,

The University of Reading

Berkshire

UK

Adult Education Courses 1 x 3 day, 3 x 5 day and the Leach Year

Leach Pottery

Higher Stennack 

Saint Ives

Cornwall

TR26 2HE

Exhibition CV                                      Venue

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Final Year 2024- 2025 

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Autumn Term Exhibition                               Polyvacher, University of Reading

Title:                                                                 Weird vs Thank you ladies

Medium:                                                           Ceramic Platter, Steel Blade, unfired ceramic sculpture on a fabric-covered plinth

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Summer Exhibition 2024                                  Studio 3, University of Reading

Title:                                                                 Ramifications 

Medium:                                                           Mix Media - Slip Cast Porcelain, ES-80 a sugar cube, wire & fabric

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Spring Term Exhibition 2024                            Studio 3, University of Reading 

Title:                                                                 More Touch

Medium:                                                           Slip Cast Porcelain & ES-80 clay & a sugar cube

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Winter Cabaret 2023                                       Studio 3, University of Reading

Title:                                                                 Pic Line

Medium:                                                           Porcelain, Rope and Polythene Tubing

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Autumn Term Exhibition 2023                          Exhibition Gallery, Art Department, University of Reading

Title:                                                                 Brutally Prescribed                  

Medium:                                                           Porcelain & Plaster

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Summer Project 2023                                      Exhibition Gallery, Art Department, University of Reading

Title:                                                                 Let's Get This Show on the Road

Medium:                                                           Photography & Collage on foam board                  

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Study Break 2021-2023

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2021 Winter Cabaret Year 2 (2nd)                    TOB1, Art Department, University of Reading

Title:                                                                  Consequential

Medium:                                                            Porcelain Ceramic Sculptures

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2021 Autumn Term Week 5                              TOB1, Art Department, University of Reading

Title:                                                                  Pandemic

Medium:                                                            Four Panels (Ceramic, Lino Print, Digital Collage & Animation

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2021 Summer Project                                       TOB1, Art Department, University of Reading

Title:                                                                  Juice

Medium:                                                            Plaster & Electric Bulbs

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2020 Winter Cabaret by Invitation (Year 1)      TOB1, Art Department, University of Reading

Title:                                                                  Resist

Medium:                                                            Mix Media Constructed Installation

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2020 Autumn Term                                           TOB1, Art Department, University of Reading

Title:                                                                  Captain Tom

Medium:                                                            Animation & Lino Print

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2020 Summer Project                                       TOB1, Art Department, University of Reading

Title:                                                                  A Drop in the Ocean

Medium:                                                            Ceramics

Access to Art & Design

Grade - Distinction

Reading College

Berkshire

UK

2019-2020

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