Tamsin van Essen BA Ceramic Design, Medical Heirlooms: Cancer, glazed ceramic, 2007
Tamsin van Essen’s graduating collection gave form to diseases, combining beauty and disgust, attraction and repulsion, art and science into one. Rather than looking at the emotional or physical suffering inflicted by diseases, she abstracted the symptoms and microbiological features. For example, cancer sends usual cellular production awry so van Essen’s interpretation was to create three vessels with the final one off-kilter.