‘I Thought it was a Museum but it Turned Out to be a Hotel’
National Art School post-grad show - MFA class of 2020
12-21 Feb 2021
Darlinghurst, National Art School, Sydney
In this body of work I looked at the càntir – an earthenware water-pitcher from Catalonia, however also found across Spain with varied
names including botijo – to explore and reimagine the aesthetic boundary between functional object and artwork. The càntir exists on a
spectrum within material culture, ranging from ancient artefact to kitsch souvenir. this work questions the nostalgia that these folk pieces
can evoke, in both their relationship to traditional craft practice, and in a subjective sense, as cultural signifiers of my matrilineal Catalan
heritage. Each piece can be seen as a soft-focus memory embodied in the ‘rustic’ object; something a tourist cherishes as they reflect on a
distant holiday from the ordinariness of their daily experience.
With huge thanks to my supervisors Sandy Lockwood and Jacqueline Bradley. Thanks also to Restaurant El Cantir at Hotel Alga, Calella de
Palafrugell, for their assistance in providing information about the frames in their restaurant, which informed the steel installation in this body of
work.
For my mother Gemma, Avi Lluís and Àvia Flora.
Frames fabricated by Simon Hodgson.
Photography by Peter Morgan.
I acknowledge the Gadigal, Dharug and Gundungurra people as the Traditional Custodians of the unceded lands across which I live, work and learn, and pay my
respects to their Elders, past and present.