Cob is pleased to present 'Monument’ - British artist Joe Sweeney’s latest series of ceramic works that subvert the forms of traditional tableware. The works compound Sweeney’s interest in the concept of the dining experience as communion.
The staggered, organic forms play with Sweeney’s certain trademark style - which he coins ‘kitchen sink surrealism’. Classical columns are reimagined; melding the grand and the crude to pass sardonic comment on the transience of life and notions of human interaction.
Exploring further the artist’s core concerns surrounding human isolation and communication, the tableware series sets the scene for the social interactions to commence whilst maintaining his signature tongue-in-cheek approach that is both humorous and moving. The surreal meets the familiar and the classical converges with the gaudy in this perceptive and unifying new body of work.