Woody De Othello: The Box

16 Sep-31 Oct 2020

Overview

Pippy Houldsworth Gallery is delighted to present a new ceramic work, on and ON, by California-based artist, Woody De Othello, made especially for The Box. This solo project is the first presentation of the artist’s work in the UK.

Othello presents a seemingly whimsical composition of household items – an alarm clock, a padlock, a wristwatch – each humorously animated in tension with the solidity of their objecthood and ceramic medium. Shaped using a ‘slab construction’ technique, the work appears quirkily mobile, yet simultaneously slumped and squashed. A sense of fatigue weighs down on its form, heightened through sombre inky blue and leaden grey glazes.

Timepieces recur as a motif within Othello’s practice. This meditation on the experience of time in contrast to the markers of its passing has been sharpened for the artist whilst working during lockdown – time has seemed to stretch endlessly or stand quite still. On closer inspection, the numbers of the clockface appear to have switched places with the combination dial of the padlock, provoking a feeling of unease and confusion. Disorientation is further expressed through the symbolism of the alarm clock – a call to wake up – in contrast with the hands of the wristwatch, stilled in the kiln, crystallising the present moment.