Freudian slips: the secrets hidden inside Emma Hart's ceramic art

Venus flytraps, socks with mouths and giant heads … as the artist’s new show Mamma Mia! opens, she tells us about putting therapy into clayAt Emma Hart ’s studio, two assistants are helping the artist with last-minute touches to graphic patterns inside a group of outsized ceramic heads. The heads appear to be consuming them as they lean deep inside, torches strapped to their foreheads, delicate paintbrushes in hand. In a little over a week, the f inished works will be moved to London’s Whitechapel Gallery where they’ll be strung from the ceiling like lamps: the centrepiece ofMamma Mia!, Hart ’s show as laureate of the biennialMax Mara art prize for women.Formed, fired and glazed in Italy, during Hart ’s six-month residency for the prize, the heads show the influence of time spent both in professional ceramics studios, and as an observer in a centre for family therapy. “Both are driven by patterns,” Hart explains. “The psychiatrist is trying to unravel human behavioural patterns, and the studio to generate a visual pattern.”Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Ceramics Art and design Culture Exhibitions Awards and prizes Women Life and style Craft Psychology Family Source Type: news