Smog Barnacle
Collection:UAL Art Collection
Date: 2024
Artist: Arabella Uemlianin
Dimensions:
30 x 25 x 9cm
Medium: Redcar beach clay, porcelain, Egyptian paste, steel ball bearings, chain
Object number: UAC 1128
See Also
DescriptionArabella Uemlianin studied BA Ceramic Design at Central Saint Martins. She says: Markings in blue engobe on porcelain made by an Afro comb, a charged implement. Aquatic folklore is relative to colonial displacement, and River Spirits from Jamacia to Russia have talismans of combs. Peg Powler, Tees dwelling River Spirit, is my muse through which the liminality of aquatic folklore and its parallel tropes are observed. Teessiders are coined ‘Smoggies’ a portmanteau of the words ‘smoke’ and ‘fog’. In this portmanteau object Egyptian paste adheres the central figure to pipes. A motif which draws from the Irish Sheela-na-gig, and a Mimizuku dogu from the Jomon period, akin to African carved comb handles.