Bronze Age Gold from Wales

This image is a still from a film or video artwork. Artist films are often created with specific experiences or physical spaces in mind. As a result, and for additional copyright reasons, we’re currently unable to show the full work as it was intended online.

Film of a teacup falling and bouncing. Usually shown as a diptych with Teacup 2 (Break) NMW A 29399. They are both part of a series of works called Fragments which were highly commended at the 2008 National Eisteddfod of Wales. This works in this series all feature ceramic objects breaking and fracturing as they are dropped onto a concrete floor.

The breaking and fracturing of ceramic objects is explored in a series of films entitled Fragments (2006/7). In collaboration with The University of Wales Engineering Department, I was given access to their ultra high-speed cameras, which shoot at 3000 frames per second. At this speed I was able to film the breaking of domestic ceramic objects, (cups, teapot, milk jug) which could then be slowed down and edited to run backwards, so that the objects break and then reform themselves.

This use of cutting-edge technology allows the viewer to witness a daily occurrence (the breaking of china) that is not ordinarily visible to the naked eye. Technology allows us to view in a more intimate way how ceramic responds and reacts to hitting a concrete surface. The onlooker is at once aware of the qualities and limitations of the ceramic object, both its tensile strengths and its fragility.

The work acts as a metaphor, for the way in which we attempt to piece together fragments of culture, (ceramics) to reconstruct the past. Technology has allowed the eye, and hence the imagination to enter a world that is not ordinarily available.

(From notes supplied by artist, 25 September 2008)