Blue ceramic sculpture of a girl wearing a bow, surrounded by flying birds
Heather Coffey, Swallowed, Slip Cast & Assembled, 8 x 6 x 5 in, 2023
Artwork Statement:
A potbelly grill spews sinister smoke. A grilling fork spears a looming tentacle. An industrial porcelain hook bears the homespun postcard adage "Wish you were here." This series of pieces undercuts the comforting icons and slogans of a vanishing Americana with a darker undertow.
The Coffey aesthetic evokes a world in which all is not what it seems on the surface. Beneath familiar totems of domesticity looms a subterranean landscape of tension and dread.
Although the medium may change—from woodcuts to porcelain to weaving—Coffey has consistently explored the distaff side in her work, yet she skews traditional expectations of these images. In this show, slip cast porcelain is the medium, babes and swallows are the messenger.
Artist Bio:
I am currently teaching ceramics at Harold Washington College.
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