tete-a-tete
Duncan of Jordanstone Degree Show, Dundee, Scotland, 2016Porcelain ceramic, parian ceramic, steel, twine, pendulum mechanism
.
tête-à-tête (a private conversation between two people) centres on a pair of swings, cast in porcelain and set in motion by a pendulum mechanism. They move gently, side by side, as if engaged in an exchange that moves in parallel but never quite meets.
The swings are worn through the middle, marked as though by repeated use over time. Yet their material, fragile and brittle porcelain, suggests they could no longer hold a body. What appears as a trace of presence is also an indication of its absence. The movement continues, but without weight, without contact.
They move toward and away from one another in a steady rhythm, briefly aligning at a midpoint before separating again. This moment of near-contact is fleeting as the swings continue their return and departure. The motion recalls the rhythm of a clock, marking time through repetition.
The work sits within a space of quiet tension: between intimacy and distance, between what is shared and what cannot be spoken. Emerging from an ongoing engagement with the death of a brother, childhood and grief, it approaches loss indirectly, through rhythm, repetition and absence, lingers in a space where connection is both implied and interrupted, where something continues to move, even as it cannot fully arrive.
