greenwich house pottery

statement

The confluence of history memory and perception are at the core of my desire to make things. The objects I make are specific in their material and function, yet the forms are layered interpretations. They are stories, rewritten with subtle complexity and nuance. The tiles are ubiquitous, recognizable, while the vases – with multiple spouts – are plucked out of a moment in history, and seem strange in our modern culture. Geometric patterns and ornamental arabesque from Iran and the Middle East are collaged and layered on the tiles, the vases, and the walls, integrating the objects with the architectural space of the gallery. The patterns draw attention to parts of their history that have been forgotten or erased. Rewriting stories into objects is a contemporary journey. I am not going back into history; I am drawing history back into the present.

a story of the tulip and the tulip vase

The tulip is a wildflower said to originate in western and central Asia, mainly Armenia and Persia. The origin of the word tulip is unknown. One explanation for the name tulip is its resemblance to the headgear worn by Persians – the turban. The turban was also written as “toliban” which is translated into Latin as “tulipa”.

The Austrian ambassador to the Ottoman court is said to have stolen seeds and bulbs and carried them back to Europe. In 1562, tulip bulbs reached Holland. Before the turn of the century, tulips had been a rarity that only the wealthy could afford, and thus became a status symbol. By the 1620’s tulip cultivation and trading had become popular with merchants as well as the Dutch aristocracy who coveted exotic mutations. By 1623 bulbs were being sold while still in the ground, and by 1634 began a period historians now refer to as Tulipomania. Tulip bulbs were sold for the prices of good houses. In 1637, the tulip market crashed and left Holland in financial ruin.

These events coincided with the beginnings of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company and the import of Chinese porcelain. Delft potters, influenced by Italian maiolica brought to Europe by the Moors from the Middle East, began to emulate the Chinese porcelain. The rise of tulip madness may have contributed to the creation of the idiosyncratic Dutch flower vase with spouts, the tulip vase.