National Association of Visual Arts (NAVA) Ignition Prize winner
BEAUTY IN BODILY REALITIES: RECONTEXTUALISING THE FEMININE EXPERIENCE THROUGH EXPANDED CERAMIC PRACTICE is a studio based research project that employs an expanded ceramic practice and unconventional installation strategies to investigate an recontextualise the feminine experience. Aspects of the grotesque, beautification, the abjected body, the domestic realm, and patriarchal value systems are explored in an attempt to reveal and challenge gender biases.
Stonehouse uses hand crafted porcelain forms, ready-made materials and ephemeral substances in unconventional methods of display to create active, temporal installations. Intimate hand-made sculptures are combined with edible liquids made of white sugar icing and red raspberry syrup to signify bodily fluids. She uses this method of surface treatment to evoke abject personal familiarity alongside more misunderstood aspects of femaleness. Drawing on art practices grounded in feminist theory, Stonehouse explores notions of beauty, desire, sexuality, the grotesque and gender bias, to reveal hidden aspects of the feminine experience.
www.anabellestonehouse.com
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