Surgical Ceramics by Beccy Ridsdel

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When you think of ceramics you probably picture kitschy florals, plant pots and tea sets, rather than highbrow design or innovative art.

Ceramic production is never really seen as art, as something that has a reason beyond itself. UK based artist Beccy Ridsdel looks into the age old debate with her series Art/Craft.

Ridsdel dissects ceramics with scalpels and pliers to reveal new layers of patterns. The installation was set up as a lab experiment complete with lab coats, microscopes and needles dotted about, while the ceramics ‘innards’ – lace and doilies – are spilling out

There’s a fun juxtaposition between mundane everyday objects and the macabre metaphor of surgery, a strange combination that highlights how unusual it is to see these objects this way.

Literally and metaphorically, the objects transform from crafts into artwork and we see it’s got a point past the technique. Treating the installation as a dissection, Ridsdel wants to expose the attention to detail and the artistic potential in these seemingly normal objects.

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Images from www.thisiscolossal.com