Caroline Slotte Cuts Away at Antique Plates to Create New Stories

We’re clos­ing in on Ceram­ics Week here, and it’s been fun! Let’s keep it going with the incred­i­ble work of of Helsin­ki-based artist Car­o­line Slotte.

I often think of antique porce­lain plates as being some­thing that you’d add to rather than sub­tract from. Boy, did Slotte prove me wrong! She cuts into the cen­ter of the sec­ond-hand objects and places mul­ti­ple pieces on top of one anoth­er. That way, you can see what’s been carved and sand­ed away and how that cre­ates an entire­ly new scene (and with it, story).

Here’s some more expla­na­tion from her artist statement:

The rework­ing of sec­ond hand objects play a piv­otal role in Car­o­line Slotte´s prac­tice. She manip­u­lates found mate­ri­als, pri­mar­i­ly ceram­ic every­day items, so that they take on new mean­ings. The ten­sions between the rec­og­niz­able and the enig­mat­ic, the ordi­nary and the unex­pect­ed are recur­ring the­mat­ic con­cerns. More recent explo­rations reveal an expand­ed inter­est in mate­r­i­al per­cep­tion and mate­r­i­al recog­ni­tion, teas­ing out sit­u­a­tions where the ini­tial visu­al iden­ti­fi­ca­tion fails result­ing in an unset­tling state of mate­r­i­al confusion.

Fas­ci­nat­ing! Be sure to check out her web­site to get a bet­ter view of the details. (Via Colos­sal)