Residents of Plymouth engaged with the museum as authors of an artwork. Twomey invited residents of the city to loan their ceramic objects for re-casting. The artist selected 33 of these to re-cast in a pure white porcelain, each piece individually back-stamped and displayed as a new heritage. The work creates a contemporary perspective on usage and taste and the desire to use, own and love objects in our home. It connects our own relationship to porcelain to the historical collection. Its main impact is the gathering of a new community of makers and authors in the residence of Plymouth who visit this museum.
2011
Artwork
Plymouth Porcelain: A New Collection
http://www.ceramics-in-the-expanded-field.com/researchers/clare-twomey
Through the making and installing of this permanent work for the Plymouth Museum the work has drawn on the museum collections and the community and has encouraged new audiences in authorship of the art work's identity; what it means to look into our homes, to understand time and value amongst objects. The work is made up of 33 hanging boxes in the main museum atrium. Inside these hanging display boxes are new porcelain objects cast from the objects of the residents of Plymouth. They all have the residents' names on them as a representation of the authorship element of the work's content.
Plymouth Porcelain: A New Collection