Women and Pattern, the latest exhibition in The Bowes Museum’s refurbished ceramics gallery, opens this weekend, and will showcase the unique work created by artist and LCF Professor Charlotte Hodes over the past decade.
Central to Charlotte’s work is the exploration of the female figure and its relationship to decoration and pattern. She uses standard vessel forms and everyday tableware, which she treats as her ‘canvas’, to build up rich and complex surfaces through a direct process of drawing and collage. The display includes work from her Fragmented Images exhibition as well as examples of her work from her forthcoming installation After the Taking of Tea.
Two overriding themes in her work, that she proposes to address in this display, involve the relationship between the pictorial and the pattern, and the representation of women. Her display will present examples of work from her time at the Spode factory and the Wallace Collection, up to the present day, and will include vases as well as examples of her tableware.
"I am delighted to have the opportunity to present my contemporary work amongst the ceramics collections at The Bowes Museum. The space offers a formal display for what I hope sets up a dynamic narrative between the historic collection and my own practice. In addition, I think that there are links to be made between my practice, in which women are central, and the role and presence of the Museum’s founder Joséphine Bowes." – Charlotte Hodes
Charlotte Hodes: Women and Pattern opens at The Bowes Museum on Saturday 13 October and runs until Sunday 24 February 2019 – the museum is open daily from 10am – 5pm.