Stella Drinkwater

If a vessel is defined by its function, what does it become when that function is removed?

Through the handmade ‘mass-production’ of a product that serves no functional purpose, 64 Hours, 12 Minutes | 109 Vessels critiques a global economy that sustains itself at the expense of both people and the wider environment. By mimicking the very cycles of production and consumption the installation seeks to question, 64 Hours, 12 Minutes | 109 Vessels speaks to impermanence (through the loss of an object over time) and the eternal cycle of creation and destruction, while questioning a system in which planned obsolescence takes precedence over quality and longevity.

Using accumulated recycled clay, a pottery wheel and the artist’s body, 109 vessels were thrown over 3852 minutes, their ultimate destruction intended from the outset. At the end of the exhibition, the unfired clay will be once again recycled and repurposed.

By investing hours into handmade mass-production of one form, the installation questions the purpose of producing objects with no other function than their eventual destruction (activated by audience interaction) and opens a conversation around capitalism - what if the items we buy are built to break from the beginning?