News
Artist’s statement
Latest exhibition: apostrophes and biscuits
“The crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe”
Frank Zappa, Apostrophe (')
This curious phrase has come to mean “the essence of the thing”; or “the heart of the matter”
I was searching for a single symbol that might best encapsulate my mother. I settled on the rosquette. These biscuits, made lovingly by hand, one by one, and each one unique, represent the soul and essence of my mother, the very heart of her, her own true self. Like a circle or a ring, they have no beginning, and no end. Such is the scale of my mother’s love, an infinite and endless giving forth.
In 2008, I asked my mother if she would write about the rosquettes, little savory circular biscuits adorned with sesame seeds that accompanied my father’s Turkish coffee. Together, they enjoyed both as a morning ritual all the days of their married life. The coffee and the rosquettes became a symbol of their union.
My mother seemed reluctant at first, considering herself not a great writer, and disliking the discipline of having to SIT for any period of time. Being good-natured though, and always keen to please, she wrote a few pages in her native tongue, French. I saw this as a special gift to me, something personal that I could keep. I didn’t know what she would write. To my surprise, in her story-telling of the biscuits, was the story of her life. That was my proof that I had truly chosen the right symbol. And in the reading of her story, the parlay between nature and nurture declared itself.
The organic form of the rosquettes became a metaphor, not only for my mother’s life, but for those forms in nature, those humble seeds, pods and native gum-nuts that sustain us.
A natural progression, then, to buds and flowers, and to sculptural elements, which appear in my work for the very first time. This exhibition, seven years in germination, is my response to her story.
Acknowledgements
My mother, artisan in the kitchen, Huguette Adès, for just about everything!
Somchai Charoen (master ceramicist and mould-maker extraordinaire)
Ben Crothers (website guru)
Fellow artists at 1+2 studios, Rozelle, Sydney, and Redbox studios, Collingwood, Melbourne (you know who you are) for their collective wisdom