Exhibitions

Freeman harnesses the mimetic qualities inherent in clay, through the magic of slip casting, to produce exact replicas of overlooked domestic items such as sponges, plugs and cracked bars of soap.

Such items inevitably hold strong emotions and memories, as they populate our homes and are used through our happiest and most troubled times. Freeman’s everyday items are often subtly embellished with gold or other precious materials, to allow viewers to deeply connect with the objects that accompany the small, often poignant, moments that fill our time.

Ebb explores the metaphoric qualities of water. The exhibition will feature a bathtub, complete with Freeman’s signature soaps, alongside contemporary lachrymal vessels used to collect tears, porcelain rain gauges and buckets. The ceramic suites of work explore the idea of rising tides and flooding, as representative of our own internal struggles. Objects show evidence of rising/receding watermarks, watercolour soap scum tide rings line a bath and mother of pearl glaze marks rain gauges holding tears. For Freeman, the focus is less related to the current global environmental crises of rising waters, but an exploration of our emotional ebbs and flows.
 

Image: Honor Freeman, and the tide rises, the tide falls, 2022
porcelain, stoneware, enamel bathtub, 94 x 152 x 76 cm. Images courtesy of the artist. Photograph: Sam Roberts.