Keywords: australia, ceramic, crochet, katherine wheeler, melbourne, metals, thread, victoria, linen, metalwork, neckpiece, porcelain

Lace Cup Fungi Collar

Katherine Wheeler

Dimensions

400 x 220 x 70 mm

Materials

Neckpiece: crochet, metalwork and ceramics using linen thread, silver, and dipped in porcelain

Artist statement

‘Lace Cup Fungi Collar is predominantly made from crochet linen thread, with components of silver and porcelain that has been fired over the top of crochet forms. The porcelain itself becomes the lace, creating an ambiguity of materials within the work. The result is an exaggerated manmade form of nature, born through learned and adapted techniques of traditional crochet, gold and silversmithing, and ceramics.

My work questions the future survival of our natural world, through the bleached white shell-like appearance, and the small irregularities which could be a growth or defect. There is an ambiguity as to whether they are living, or long past. They are created to be worn on the body, and while having a certain beauty they are almost a trophy of the destruction of the natural world.’