Much of my work focuses on the dynamic between two motifs, the female figure silhouette together with the vessel, the dress or the plinth. These serve as the pivot around which I juxtapose pattern and further small elements. I trawl from a myriad of sources from the fine and decorative arts to costume and fashion in museum collections and archives, photos and magazines. The work is process led from analogue hand drawing, collage and hand making through to digital ‘cut’ and ‘paste’, print and animation.
My motifs are flat shapes filled with pattern, invaded by pattern and, or, disrupted by pattern. I intend for there to be a sense of a moment caught, with the transient female silhouette endeavoring to resist capture within the physicality of the material, as she takes shape before the possibility of fragmentation. My intricate hand making collage process, which characterizes all aspects of my work from papercut to ceramic, is further evidence of it being rooted within female experience and traditional craft skills.
Until now, my ceramics have been predominantly single units such as vessels
(either slip cast, press mold or hand thrown) onto which I apply imagery using hand cut paper stencil, underglaze colour and hand cut as well as digital enamel transfer.
For me this invitation to work at the Clay Studio is a fabulous opportunity to approach in new ways ideas that are current in my practice. I am aware of the necessity for a framework to work within not least to plan technical support. Nevertheless I like to work flexibly, responding to the unexpected. My working method is led by process and intuition. The ceramic forms each have different characters depending on the process used and the sensibility of the maker. My focus is on what actually happens as I respond to the forms and as I work across and activate the surfaces.
Bio
Charlotte Hodes (b. 1959, London) lives and works in London. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London. Currently Hodes is a Professor of Fine Art at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London.
