The broken teapot, a found object from the home, from the kitchen where our interaction with objects is more active.
How does this render the object? It is no longer functional. Is it now rendered a thing?
A teapot is indicative of a social interaction. Tea is usually being shared if it is made in a pot. Tea can be nourishing, meditative, ceremonial in a number of cultures. Within the U.K., tea could be a marker of colonialism and trade. The pot carries with it ritual, memories, cultural indicators.
As an object from the home that carries with it cultural, social and personal markers, I wanted to explore what the purpose or meanings associated with it were now that it was broken.
I placed film within the teapot. Exploring it as a vessel of memories. The brown of the film cast a tea coloured hue and shadow mirroring the remnants of tea in the spout. The transparency and colour of the film lent itself to the liquid that would usually be held by the the object.
I experimented with different images and curations in and around the pot but there was something in the contained film that drew the focus towards the thing itself. It alluded to its past functions, to the memories associated with it. When it was placed within a collection it looked more like a broken object rather than a thing. A thing that was enigmatic with a narrative that was no longer a functional object.
OSJ Wells Fine Art 