Pippy Houldsworth Gallery is pleased to present Brigid, a site-specific environment by Leora Honeyman in The Box, the gallery’s micro project space.
Brigid belongs to a series of porcelain jars birthed from the idea that the space within the vessel may contain a volume or dimension other than that which is obvious from the outside, being portal-like, and therefore offering a bridge between realms. This magical idea is expressed in Brigid as the possibility of new beginnings.
Nestled in a bed of brilliant white magnesium, the sculpture is meticulously crafted from ceramic and glass, its contours reflecting the shape of a Djin jar or witch bottle, a type of cask dating back to Elizabethan England and made by folk healers or white witches to ward off dark magic. Derived from the form and function of traditional ginger jars, the void inside the vessel is treated as a container for the non-physical.
Named for Saint Brigid, the installation invokes occult and shamanistic themes. Much of what is known of Brigid is rooted in pagan folklore; she is the patroness of poetry, learning and healing, amongst other things. Saint Brigid’s Day, or Imbolc, celebrates the beginning of spring and is associated with the blossoming of snowdrops, something that the magnesium setting emulates.
Honeyman’s objects are intended as items of function, although it is understood that the use is ambiguous and that they may be viewed from a conceptual, sculptural or even decorative point of view. By creating objects whose use is improbable, she asks the viewer to imagine a heterotopia in which otherness is embraced. By liberating associations of pattern, materiality, origin and purpose, hybridised items are created that suggest an alternate world view.
Born and partly raised in Southern Africa, Honeyman is influenced by the natural world and by intercultural hybridities, and brings to her ceramic practice a broad material intelligence and a multi-media approach. Honeyman began her career creating psychedelic environments for clubs and festivals allowing her to develop a broad and varied material fluency and from which she moved into a formal training and subsequent practice in architectural design. She graduated in 2021 from the Royal College of Art with an MA degree in Ceramics & Glass. She has been the recipient of the QEST Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (2020) and was included in the Fresh showcase at the British Ceramics Biennial (2021), where she was awarded the British Ceramics Biennial residency.