Melissa Kiernan

In my work I aim to imbue gentleness and delicacy by breaking up the human form into a patchwork of fractured, cracked and often translucent overlaid pieces. Every piece I make has emotional impact. I’m working with the human condition- the strength, the suffering, the fragility and the transient fleeting beauty of the human form. Life impacts and leaves its mark. [Melissa Kiernan]

Read more

Blemished by a smattering of peeling skin; porcelain fractures act as dark windows into these blank and expressionless souls. Mottled pigment affects the body; a hint at veins running blue beneath the surface. Cracks run like a continuous line around the figure’s details, as if each had once sprung to life and breath had impacted on their fragile state. Eyes are directed forward with the tilt of a head, pupil-less and unreadable yet far from intimidating; their innocence of character reflected in their childlike purity of form and candid stance.

Working with paper thin porcelain and firing it at extreme temperature allows Keirnan to explore the vulnerability of human existence through material matter; the angels fragile forms providing an echo to an imagined emotional landscape. Attaining her BA (Hons) in Ceramics at the University of the West of England, Kiernan now lives and works in Somerset.

Articles and Reviews

Bath Chronicle 18 Sept 2014

Ceramic Review July/Aug 2014

Bath Life Jan 2019

The Bath Magazine April 2019

 

Showing all 7 results