Ceramic Commissions

Susan Elliott

Susan Elliott is a Hastings based artist working with mosaic materials creating post-pop imagery from recycled materials. Susan has been commissioned to create ceramic mosaic seating for St Austell.

Susan Elliott trained as a textile designer before going on to work as a community artist in London, painting large scale public murals. During this period she also learned mosaic making. It is this discipline that she has now embraced and made her own. Susan uses recycled kitchen crockery and tourist mementos creating multi faceted, jewel- like images of popular culture often with a narrative of national identity, she expresses a sympathetic and fond deconstruction of British clichés. Because of the nature of the materials used, the viewing experience is one of discovery and recognition, as Susan describes, “It is like inspecting someone’s mantelpiece or going through their drawers.”
Susan’s work is currently exhibited regularly at Mauger Modern Art in London, The Bowie Gallery, Devon and The Bugno Gallery, Venice.

Describes her work as “Like archiving the cupboards and mantelpieces of a Nation… my work is made out of kitchen tea time crockery, kitsch tourist mementos, novelty mugs, badges, coins, the everyday stuff of domestic living. The materials I find when starting a new  piece, determine the sentiment or theme, as they are clipped, glued and grouted into a richly worked, multi faceted story within an iconic  image of popular culture. By using these tourist, gift mementos celebrating easy platitudes and sentiments, I aim to explore, revere and subvert the things we all believe to be a reflection of  National Identity. Ultimately my work is informed by the very language it seeks to subvert and becomes a new kitsch, a new statement of National Identity.”

Susan is developing a series of mosaic installations that will be located across St Austell town centre.

susanelliottmosaics.co.uk

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