ouvrez les guillemets...

Additional Information

" ouvrez les guillemets..." (detail) Photo: Ed Jones

Regina artist Jeannie Mah's passion for ceramics, cinema and all things French inform her work. By positioning her ceramic objects within the broader contexts of ceramic history and film, Mah points to the relationship between objects and their social value. For example, a small Kamares ware cup from 14th century BC Crete, and Sèvres teacups of 18th century France, have been historical references for Jeannie Mah. She exaggerates the attributes of the Sèvres cup in the production of her own cups to refer to their aristocratic beginnings - these ornately decorated and designed teacups were employed by King Louis XIV as royal gifts to favoured courtiers. By placing the over-wrought French tea-cup beside the simple Minoan one, Mah sets up a dialogue between these seemingly opposite forms. Images of these cups, on the ceramic vessels are read as subtle historical "quotations". Film stills of cups from cinematic history are appropriated as a backdrop for Mah's Minoan-like black cups. Mah has borrowed from film to create a mise-en-scene, just as historical painters once produced the still-life, as chronicles of our times. Mah's exhibition raises questions about the relationships of status and power that lurk within historical and contemporary objects. Revealing their lineage by placing documents, from the French porcelain industry, behind her work, she unveils the tradition which underlies the objects she makes, as well as those we use everyday. Exhibition and panel are presented with the financial assistance of the Saskatchewan Arts Board.