For many, the ceramic work of Scotland based artist Jessica Harrison is initially shocking. Harrison alters these figures with a stomach-turning realism. Ceramic figurines, the type that are ubiquitous in antique shops and thrift stores, seem gravely injured, even mutilated. Georgian and Victorian-era idyllic figures of women appear to be subjected to an awful violence. For all of the extreme alterations performed on the figurines, however, Harrison leaves the saccharine facial expressions of the women intact. The women appear as hostesses to their own injuries, eerily ever pleasant . The work powerfully addresses body politics, objectification, and violence. Yet, at the same time, it reminds the viewer of their own body, vulnerable like the figurine’s.
