47. Sharon McEachern

47. Sharon McEachern

Title: Precious Preservation
Prize Status: Judges Commendation Prize Winner
Category: Emerging Artist
Dimensions (cm): 35h x 17w x 17d
Medium: Ceramic

Statement:

Lived experiences and memories inform peoples’ beliefs and ideologies. I am interested in how the experiences of daily life shape us and create memories conjuring nostalgic thoughts. Scents, sounds and visuals are the vehicles which deliver an essence of the past. Nostalgia, coupled with an admiration and concern for native flora, informs my art practice. My detailed hand built ceramic forms, are inspired by the complexities of the natural environment combined with deliberately re-created glaze finishes adopted from old decorative Japanese crockery, traditional blue and white ware and English fine China. Through my works, the audience is free to morph their own memories into new and imagined ones: they are forced to question what is real and what is not. My exploration of ceramics, research of the history of ceramic decoration and building techniques, has taken me to the historically rich city of Jingdezhen, China, which has been at the very heart of fine porcelain production by master craftsmen for well over a thousand years. Joining an artist residency in 2017, 2018 and 2019, I have had access to the great ceramic and porcelain masters who taught ancient and modern technical skills, many of which have been handed down over hundreds of generations. These experiences continue to influence and inspire my practice.