UnderStory II
A genealogical journey searching for unknown biological family, resulted in a physical voyage. The resulting images are taken from the hundreds of photographs taken from a three-week road trip through the southern U.S. discovering the places and people that revealed themselves through DNA.
UnderStory II, 2024. Leonora Lockhart. Digital image from original photographs.
UnderStory II, 2024. Leonora Lockhart. Digital image from original photographs.
UnderStory II, 2024. Leonora Lockhart. Digital image from original photographs.
The Void Space
The Void Space emanates from a collection of oral histories recorded to explore the implications of domestic and societal expectations on a creative life. Through material culture… the stuff of home, the life experiences of women artists are woven into wider social, cultural, and political contexts to probe the implications and repercussions of gender differences that contribute to a tension… a disparity…? an imbalance, at the very least, within the art world paradigm. These narratives of domesticity are often expressed through the hereditary material of home - ceramic or glass - and disrupt and remould the established language of domestic objects to reveal overlooked, hidden narratives of home. The Void Space is a material illustration taken from the testimonies of women artists reflecting on their practice and their relationship to home and studio.
The Void Space, 2023. Leonora Lockhart. Installation in wood, ceramic, glass, metal, plastic. 185 cm (l), 120 cm (d) x 210 cm (h).
Mother’s Little Helper, 2023. Kiln-cast Bulleye glass, cast bronze, slipcast and glazed ceramic displayed in a ubiquitous cupboard. (h)42 cm x (w)60 cm x (d)20 cm.
Here We Art, 2023. Leonora Lockhart. Glazed ceramic 8 cm (d) x 100 cm (w) x 20 cm (h). Each pair of ceramic vessels represents a statistic, forming part of a larger data set illustrating the representation of women artists in Britain. Data comes from the Freelands Foundation publication ‘Representation of Women Artists in the UK during 2021’ by Dr. Charlotte Bonham-Carter. This was the latest data set available at the time of making.
I GET UP HALF AN HOUR EARLY 2023. Leonora Lockhart. Kiln-cast glass. (h)20 cm x (w)100 cm x (d)18 cm: A dawn awakening; a lull before the household stirs. It’s about setting yourself up for the day, getting up an extra half hour early to fulfil a morning ritual, enjoying the mental space and building up the strength to face the strife of everyday domestic life.
Tidewrack
This triptych explores the seaweed and similar marine vegetation and rubbish deposited along a shore by a receding tide, it speaks of the domestic and reflects on wider plastic usage within the home.
Tidewrack, 2019/20. Leonora Lockhart. Glazed ceramic wall piece. Individual pieces measure (d) 20 cm.
Dismantled
Dismantled looks to the relationships we have with the objects around us and explores how the mantelpiece serves as context for the material culture surrounding us. This familiar archetype holds a tension between our public and private selves and my work references concepts of memory, and the narratives of the domestic and the everyday.
Dismantled, 2019. Leonora Lockhart. Glazed ceramic wall pieces. Various sizes.
UnderStory
UnderStory explores ideas of hidden domestic stories and stems from an exploration of the hereditary reverberations of adoption and the search for identity that it can trigger. This piece is a ghost story that bears witness to hidden under stories. The set is made up from disparate charity shop finds – discarded objects - given away. Each one carries different sets of narratives from past owners and continues in its amended form to hold new overlooked or undiscovered narratives.
UnderStory, 2018/19. Leonora Lockhart. Glazed porcelain with bespoke overglaze decals. (h)23 cm x (w)26 cm x (d)26 cm. The original surface decoration is removed and rescaled. Colour is substituted for white, removing a sense of identity and talking a language of rebirth and regeneration whilst hinting at fragments of memory and narrative.
