Video

Fracture and Fragment

"Every act of creation is first an act of destruction." Pablo Picasso

Sandra Shashou’s new body of work, comprising of arrangements of smashed fragments of bone china tea sets, oscillates between modalities of dissolution and reformulation, order and rupture, and historical eras.

Her source material is the bone china produced by Europe’s finest porcelain manufacturers, as the titles of her works indicate – Hamilton, Argyle, Tuscan, Royal Albert, Wedgwood, Limoges, Meito hand-painted and Cobalt – and collected by her from dealers and flea markets. The designs range across centuries and topographies: in one work the lemons and blues of Art Deco, in another the crimson of Edwardian and Victorian designs, and in a third the blue tracery of Chinoiserie.

Shashou brings these tea sets back to her studio and using a small hammer she shatters, punctures, chips and fragments. And yet the shapes of the original crockery are somehow preserved and repurposed in her intricate constructions. The curves of the broken tea sets undulate across simple rectangular surfaces, or swirl around rotundas with a baroque flamboyance. In some the pieces lock tightly together as if part of some giant Cubist puzzle, in other shards seem to be caught in the freeze frame of a constructivist explosion. Her chromatically rich, harmonious works match crimsons, mustard yellows and pinks, or mauve, turquoise and blue. Set in a gold or white ground, Shashou’s fragments unfold like Jackson Pollock’s all-over paintings – only shattered, not splattered.

Shashou has found inspiration in the Japanese art of Kintsugi, in which broken bowls were repaired with beautiful golden joins, so fashionable in the 17th century, that people were accused of deliberately smashing valuable pottery so it could be remade in this manner.

Some may read a social comment in her work, a playful rupturing of bourgeois values. The order and tranquillity of a daily routine, with its echoes of Victorian Britain, Alice in Wonderland and social conformity, tea-time, has been literally shattered.

Shashou herself prefers to foreground the emotional and biographical metaphors embedded in the work. Smashing crockery is, after all, a time-honoured feature of the lovers’ row. “Breakage and fractures are part of the chance and fate of human life, part of our personal history,” she says, "I embrace vulnerability and fragility. In truth that is how we reveal ourselves and really connect.” When Shashou has looked back on love that has disintegrated, and reflected on the times when she has felt ‘shattered’, she has realised that the pieces have rearranged themselves in a new harmonious order. “They fitted together but not they did before."

SHOP

Gifts of Love – Handmade porcelain sculptures by Sandra Shashou

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If you would like to know more about any artwork on this page please contact me

ABOUT THE WORK
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Gold Heart and Vintage Limoges Box – Rafel’s Two Cherub Angels (H41) 17cm x 17cm x 10cm, Gold Fine Vintage Gold Porcelain Coffee Cups and Limoges Porcelain Cherubs, Jesmonite and Resin, 2022

£2,500

Gold Heart (H42) 17cm x 17cm x 10cm Gold Fine Vintage Fine Porcelain Tea Ware, Jesmonite and Resin, 2022

£2,500

Roses Are Forever (RT10) Pink Roses, Flowers and Tea 33x33x20D Royal Doulton, Royal Albert Roses, Royal Stuart Spencer Vintage porcelain, Jesmonite and Resin 2020

£5,000

Roses Are Forever (RT11) Blue Roses, Flowers and Tea 33x33x20D Royal Doulton, Royal Albert Roses, Royal Stuart Spencer Vintage porcelain, Jesmonite and Resin 2020

£5,000

Roses Are Forever, Heart (HR38) 17cm x 17cm x 10cm Royal Stuart Spencer Stevenson Tea Cups, Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Aynsley Rose Posy Vintage Porcelain, Jesmonite and Resin, 2022

£2,500

Gold Heart and Vintage Limoges Hotdog (H45) 17cm x 17cm x 10cm Gold Fine Vintage Gold Porcelain Coffee Cups and Limoges Porcelain Hot Dog, Jesmonite and Resin, 2022

£2,500

Roses Are Forever (R3) 23cm Dia x 13Dcm, (9” Dia x 6” Deep) Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Aynsley Rose Posy vintage porcelain, Jesmonite and Resin. 2020

£3,000

Heart Pink and Burgundy (HR39) 17cm x 17cm x 10cm Royal Stuart Spencer Fine Bone Vintage Tea Cups, Jesmonite and Resin, 2022

£2,500

Candy Pink Heart (H40) 17cm x 17cm x 10cm, Aynsley Espresso Demitasse Coffee Cups & Saucers Pink & Gold Tea Cups, Vintage Porcelain, Jesmonite and Resin, 2022

£2,500

Roses Are Forever (R4) 23cm Dia x 13Dcm, (9” Dia x 6” Deep) Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Aynsley Rose Posy vintage porcelain, Jesmonite and Resin. 2020

£3,000

Roses Are Forever (R9) 30cm Dia x 13Dcm, (11” Dia x 6” Deep) Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Aynsley Rose Posy vintage porcelain, Jesmonite and Resin 2020

£3,500

Heart, Blue Wedgwood (H1) Large 22x22x10Dcm, (7.8”x7.8”x4” Deep) Wedgwood Jasperware Vintage Porcelain, Jesmonite, Acrylic Paint, 2020

£3,000

Roses Are Forever (R2) 23cm Dia x 13Dcm, (9” Dia x 6” Deep) Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Aynsley Rose Posy vintage porcelain, Jesmonite and Resin. 2020

£3,000

Black & Gold Heart (H12) 17x17x10Dcm Black and Gold Tea Cups Vintage Porcelain, Jesmonite and Resin, 2021

£2,500

Yellow and Gold Heart (H44) 17cm x 17cm x 10cm Royal Stuart Spencer Fine Vintage Porcelain, Jesmonite and Resin, 2022

Roses Are Forever (R5) 23cm Dia x 3Dcm, (9” Dia x 1.2” Deep) Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Aynsley Rose Posy vintage porcelain, Jesmonite and Resin 2020

We Are Two Peas In A Pod (H15) Gold Heart & Peas in a Pod | 17x17x10Dcm Gold Fine Vintage Gold Porcelain Coffee Cups, Limoges Porcelain Peas In A Pod, Jesmonite and Resin, 2021
Gold Heart & Red Hot Chilli (H11) 17x17x10Dcm Gold Fine Vintage Gold Porcelain coffee cups and Limoges Porcelain Red Hot Chilli, Jesmonite and Resin, 2021
Gold Heart (H13) 23x23x10cm Gold Fine Vintage Fine Porcelain Tea ware, Jesmonite and Resin, 2021
Blue and Gold Heart (H14) 27x27x12Dcm Queen Anne and Royal Stuart Spencer Fine Vintage Porcelain, Jesmonite and Resin, 2021
Gold and White Tea Delight 59 Royal Winton Limoges Vintage Porcelain 2020
Heart, Gold (H2) Large 22x22x10Dcm, (7.8”x7.8”x4” Deep) Royal Winton Gold Vintage Porcelain, Jesmonite, Acrylic Paint, 2020
Blue, Black and Gold Heart (H43) 17cm x 17cm x 10cm, Royal Stuart Spencer Fine Vintage Porcelain, Jesmonite and Resin, 2022
Roses Are Forever, Heart (HR9) 17x17x10Dcm Royal Stuart Spencer Stevenson Tea Cups, Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Aynsley Rose Posy vintage porcelain, Jesmonite and Resin, 2021
Pink and Burgundy Heart (H10) 17x17x10Dcm Royal Stuart Spencer Stevenson Tea Cups, Vintage Porcelain, Jesmonite and Resin, 2021
Roses Are Forever, Heart (HR7) 15x15x10Dcm Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Aynsley Rose Posy Vintage Porcelain, Jesmonite and Resin, 2021
Roses Are Forever, Heart (HR8) 27x27x12Dcm Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Aynsley Rose Posy Vintage Porcelain, Jesmonite and resin, 2021
Heart, Blue Wedgwood, (H5) 15x15x8Dcm, (5”9×5’9×3”D) Wedgwood Jasperware Vintage Porcelain, Jesmonite, Acrylic Paint, 2021
Heart Blue Wedgwood, (H6) 22x22x10Dcm, (7.8”x7.8”x4”) Wedgwood Jasperware Vintage Porcelain, Jesmonite, Acrylic Paint, 2021
Heart, Japanese Fine Porcelain (H3) 22x22x10Dcm, (7.8”x7.8”x4” D) Jesmonite, Acrylic Paint, 2020
Heart Turquoise and Roses 2020 (H4) 26x26cmx 10D cm Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Aynsley Rose posy vintage porcelain, Jesmonite and resin, 2020
Roses Are Forever (R1) 23cm Dia x 13Dcm, (9” Dia x 6” Deep) Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Aynsley Rose Posy vintage porcelain, Jesmonite and Resin. 2020.
Roses Are Forever, Heart With UV Plexi Cover (R6) 23x23x17D cm (9”x9”x6”7 Deep) Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Aynsley Rose Posy vintage porcelain, Jesmonite and resin 2020, with a 3mm UV Plexi cover. 22x22x15Dcm. On backing board. Sprayed White.
Roses Are Forever, Heart (HR 36) 27cm x 27cm x 12cm Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Aynsley Rose Posy Vintage Porcelain, Jesmonite and Resin, 2022
Gold Heart with Limoges Hot Chilli Pepper (H37) 23cm x 23cm x 10cm Gold Fine Vintage Fine Porcelain Tea Ware, with Limoges Hot Chilli Pepper, Jesmonite and Resin, 2022

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