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' playfully takes on the scientific practice of defining and classifying groups based on shared characteristics, as well as proposing 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 & 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.”
Left: Apparition, 2024. Glazed ceramic, 16 elements wall based 75 x 58 x 5cm. Centre: Gathering, 2024. Glazed ceramic & porcelain. 130 x 118 x 6 cm. Right: Spectral Constellation, 2024. Glazed ceramic. 125 x 95 x 6 cm.
Story-vessels: Leshy's Revenge, 2024; Daphne Flees Apollo, 2024; Otik's Quest, 2023.
Reclining Figures, 2024. Glazed ceramic & porcelain. 160 x 65 x 28 cm. Re-imagines the sculptural tradition of the reclining figure.
Celestial Family, 2024. Acrylic on canvas. 135 x 120 cm overall. An ensemble of shadowy, demonic forms.
Spectral Constellation, 2024. Glazed ceramic. 125 x 95 x 6 cm. A family of ghostly, demon-like entities inspired by physical transformations in Greek mythology and animist ideas. Also evocative of Yōkai - personifications of supernatural and unaccountable phenomena from early Japanese folklore.
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.
Daphne Flees Apollo, 2023. Glazed ceramic. 34 x 26 x 24 cm. Pace's reinterpretations of myths and archetypes include Daphne's flight from Apollo, highlighting themes of empowerment, escape, and transformation.
Otik's Quest, 2023. Glazed ceramic. 37 x 30 x 32 cm. Otik derives from a darkly humorous, surreal Czech folk tale about a tree stump believed to be animate.