The issue of reconciling career and family, motherhood and work is an increasingly common theme in contemporary art, not only from a practical and material point of view, but also as a spiritual and ethical problem. In this solo exhibition, Abigail Wirth presents narrative ceramics that, in their snapshots, address everyday problems and feelings: the guilt of prioritisation, the anxiety of the pressure to conform from within and without, the fear of failure, the lethargy of exhaustion and overwork, and, above all, loneliness.
The blue-and-white glazed porcelain, reminiscent of China, draws its formal inspiration from two places: firstly, a reference to a popular 90s toy called Polly Pocket, which was specifically designed for little girls. Polly Pocket was a shell-like plastic shell that enclosed various parts of the home, where stereotypically feminine tasks could be performed by little girls playing with child-like dolls, preparing them for adulthood. Using this play as a symbol, Abigail Wirth expresses the constricted world and monotonous focus that a mother with a child at home experiences. In this closed system, the absence or interruption of human relationships – as the mother grows closer to her child, she grows distant from her friends – plays an important role.
The exhibition should not be interpreted as a complaint, however, as it is a counterpoint to perceived or real flaws, and is a counterpoint to the Japanese art of kincugi, the art of repairing broken ceramics with gold, which is a philosophy about accepting imperfection and fate. Nor is it a complaint, for another formal origin of porcelain is a medieval, Kabbalese tradition: the portraits of loved ones were painted inside a walnut shell and worn around the neck.