lave . (to wash. to bathe. (of water) to wash over or against).
This timely body of work continues my exploration into the poetic potential of the simple and ubiquitous bar of soap. A small yet quietly powerful object that has gathered heightened meaning during the pandemic with the return of hand washing rituals. Behind soap’s deceptively benign exterior and sweet fragrance lingers the whiff of nineteenth century propagandist regimes of care, comfort and control. Using the mimetic qualities of clay via the process of slip casting, this new series interacts with ideas of liquid made solid. The porcelain casts remember the almost obsolete objects; the liquid slip solidifies becoming a precise memory of a past form – a ghost. Scentless and forever preserved in porcelain.
Honor Freeman, August 2021
Honor Freeman is an artist based in the Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia whose practice utilises the mimetic properties of porcelain, crafting objects that belie their materiality and purpose.
Freeman completed her studies in 2001 at the South Australian School of Art. Following graduation, Honor took up an Associate position and Tenant residency in the ceramics studio at JamFactory Craft and Design. Her work has been curated into major exhibitions at institutions throughout Australia, including the MCA’s Primavera 2007, Tarrawarra Museum of Art, and Adelaide’s Samstag Museum. She has undertaken international residencies at Guldagergaard, Denmark’s International Ceramic Museum and in the US at Indiana University’s School of Art and Design. In 2018 she was invited to undertake the Guildhouse Collections Project at the Art Gallery of South Australia, the outcome of this residency Ghost Objects, was exhibited in 2019 as part of SALA Festival.
Exhibiting since 2000, Honor’s work is held in numerous public collections including the NGV, Art Gallery of South Australia, ArtBank and Washington DC’s National Musuem of Women in the Arts.
