Strange Company, 2024, solo exhibition at Arusha Gallery, Somerset.
Above: Gathering, 2024. Glazed ceramic & porcelain. 130 x 118 x 6 cm. Highly various emoji-like species make up an alternative family tree or taxonomical grouping of more-than-human presences. ‘Gathering' playful takes on the scientific practice of defining and classifying groups based on shared characteristics, as well as what might constitute a family or kin.
Strange Company “Features a new body of work that takes us on a journey into an unfamiliar world, populated by hybrid beings. Ensembles of exquisitely made and vividly coloured mask-like faces, reclining figures, and richly detailed storytelling vessels provoke us to expand upon our ideas about the intersections and blurred boundaries between the human and nonhuman realms. Pace invites us to explore the spaces between the known and the unknown in her new works, where we may uncover connections with whatever ‘strange company’ we find ourselves in.”
Spectral Constellation, 2024. Glazed ceramic. 125 x 95 x 6 cm. A family of ghostly, demon-like entities that suggest both the everyday and otherworldly realms. Inspired by nymphs in Greek mythology that physically transform and the animist idea that spirit-like entities are believed to reside in all things, the characters in Spectral Constellation also suggest Yōkai - personifications of supernatural and unaccountable phenomena from early Japanese folklore.
Detail of Reclining Figures, 2024. Glazed ceramic & porcelain. 160 x 65 x 28 cm. Re-imagines the sculpture tradition of the reclining figure; however, these figures appear fallen or perhaps struggling to get up.
Celestial Family, 2024. Acrylic on canvas. 135 x 120 cm overall. Celestial Family suggests an otherworldly universe inhabited by an ensemble of shadowy, creaturely and at times, demonic, forms.
Amphora (For Family Secrets), 2024. Glazed ceramic. 46 x 32 x 32 cm. For holding stories and also for catching stories yet to be written or told.
Vessel (For the Ancestors), 2023 Glazed ceramic 48 x 18 x 19 cm
Apparition, 2024 Glazed ceramic, 16 elements wall based 75 x 58 x 5cm
Daphne Flees Apollo, 2023. Glazed ceramic. 34 x 26 x 24 cm. My reinterpretations of myths and archetypes includes Daphne's flight from Apollo, highlighting themes of empowerment, escape, and transformation.
Leshy's Revenge, 2024. Glazed ceramic. 38 x 28 x 26.5 cm. A Leshy is a Slavic pre-Christian mythical woodland spirit, that protects its environment.
Otik's Quest, 2023. Glazed ceramic. 37 x 30 x 32 cm. Otik derives from a darkly humorous, surreal folk tale about a tree stump believed to be animate.