Honor Freeman: lave at Sabbia Gallery, Sydney
Absorb – 2021, porcelain, gold lustre – 2 objects, 50 h x 240 w x 13mm d. Image by Grant Hancock 
Bleach – 2021, porcelain, gold lustre – wall installation of 52 objects, 640 h x 640 w x 30mm d – ceramics. Image by Grant Hancock 
Care, comfort, control I – 2021, porcelain – 4 components, 60 h x 330 w x 190mm d – Image courtesy of Sabbia Gallery 
Fade (in blue) – 2021, porcelain, gold lustre – wall installation of 53 objects, 640 h x 640 w x 30mm d – ceramics. Image by Grant Hancock 
Fade – 2021, porcelain, gold lustre – wall installation of 63 objects, 750 h x 750 w x 30mm d – ceramics. Image by Grant Hancock 
Fade – 2021 
Shades of sunlight – 2021, porcelain, gold lustre – wall installation of 20 objects, 1300 h x 115 w x 30mm d. Image by Grant Hancock 
Shades of sunlight – 2021 
Soak – 2021, porcelain, gold lustre – 4 components, 130 h x 200 w x 30mm d. Image courtesy of Sabbia Gallery
Honor Freeman: lave is on view at Sabbia Gallery, Sydney
September 8 – October 2, 2021
Sabbia Gallery is pleased to present “lave”, a solo exhibition by Honor Freeman.
Honor Freeman is an artist based in the Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia whose practice utilises the mimetic properties of porcelain, crafting objects that belie their materiality and purpose.
Freeman completed her studies in 2001 at the South Australian School of Art. Following graduation, Honor took up an Associate position and Tenant residency in the ceramics studio at JamFactory Craft and Design. Her work has been curated into major exhibitions at institu- tions throughout Australia, including the MCA’s Primavera 2007, Tarrawarra Museum of Art, and Adelaide’s Samstag Museum. She has undertaken interna tional residencies at Guldagergaard, Denmark’s International Ceramic Museum and in the US at Indiana University’s School of Art and Design. In 2018 she was invited to undertake the Guildhouse Col- lections Project at the Art Gallery of South Australia, the outcome of this residency Ghost Objects, was exhibited in 2019 as part of SALA Festival. Exhibiting since 2000, Honor’s work is held in numerous public collections including the NGV, Art Gallery of South Australia, ArtBank and Washington DC’s National Musuem of Women in the Arts.
lave . (to wash. to bathe. (of water) to wash over or against)
lave continues my exploration into the poetic potential of the simple and ubiquitous bar of soap. A small yet quietly powerful object that has gathered heightened meaning during the last 18 months.
Moulds are created of discarded cake soap in various states of decay, creviced, weath-ered and barely there slivers, objects worn into odd shapes recalling the traces of an indi-viduals touch. The soaps are cast in porcelain, carved, sanded, glazed, gold filled and fired numerous times. These intimate objects speaking of the body, cleanliness and rituals of comfort and care.
Referencing the traditional Japanese art of Kintsugi, (repair with gold and lacquer) the cracks are carefully sealed with gold lustre, transforming them into golden seams. The uncertainty of porcelain and the metaphorical power of kintsugi unite in this ordinary act of repair reflecting on ideas of rupture and renewal.
Using the mimetic qualities of clay via the process of slip casting, the work interacts with ideas of liquid made solid. The porcelain casts remember the almost obsolete objects; the liquid slip solidifies becoming a precise memory of a past form – a ghost. Scentless and forever preserved in porcelain.
Honor Freeman, 2021
Contact
+61 2 9361 6448
gallery@sabbiagallery.com
Sabbia Gallery
609 Elizabeth Street
Redfern Sydney NSW 2016
Installation images courtesy of Sabbia Gallery
