As part of our ongoing showcase of contemporary crafts, the Modern Art Oxford shop presents sculptor Jane King.
Jane King creates sculptures which are intentionally unsettling in their form and method of display, sometimes spilling over their plinths. In her work, King explores the idea of containment of personal and emotional mess and disorder, in a world which she believes increasingly encourages control and perfection in all aspects of life as desirable and attainable.
King is interested in the way in which social media is manipulated to mask the messiness and chaos of real life through the curation and careful construction of personal identities. This theme is explored in her small-scale pieces which combine opposites of form, texture and colour as metaphors for perfection versus imperfection / control versus chaos, in relation to personal identity and a contradictory sense of self.
King’s sculptures are hand built over a number of weeks from earthenware clay and fired to earthenware temperatures. Each one comprises carefully formed and finished sections and parts, which are more loosely handled and messily finished. Muted earthenware glazes, stained with oxides, are offset by vivid acrylic colours.
