Indulging in reminiscence: 'it was still beautiful' (2015)
6ft x 3ft x 2ft, porcelain, fired to cone 10, and wood
“Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were.” ― Marcel Proust ―
Functional objects, especially tablewares, are storages of memoir. We are so closely related to them; we touch, and use daily. They are left with unseen traces of activity, time and remembrance of people whom we shared the moments with. They are representations of our daily livelihood and for this reason the use of functional forms plays an important role in the work.
Through this work, I question the illusion of memory. Memory is such a subjective process in which information is encoded, stored, and by all means retrieved with distorted perspective, often beautified. Time diffuses the perspective and blurs objectivity; the pain of a scar becomes a glorious medal, ordinary becomes memorable scenery, and beautiful becomes more beautiful.
Perspective changes and brings the moments back with a different viewpoint, which lets to find and see different things and meanings. The writer Salman Rushdie once said, 'memory selects, eliminates, alters, exaggerates, minimizes, vilifies or glorifies specific parts of it creating its own new reality'. So, I say. The past was beautiful, today is beautiful and the future will be beautiful. Well, time goes by and this moment just became a memory.
