‘Abject Nudes’ is a continuation from the ‘Fragmented Femininity’: exploring scale to further the sense of uncanniness. Their undulations and folds contrasted with fractured and bulging elements, simultaneously evoke a sense of familiarity and the unexpected. Serena plays with the notion of creating ‘entities’ that appeared supple, fleshy and familiar, but abstracted and not directly ‘human’. By using soft yet pulsating washes, allows her works to linger within the liminal space of the body and ceramics. They depict flesh but, simultaneously, symbolise and accentuate sensuality, sensitivity, naivety, seduction and allure. Whilst applying colour to her surfaces, she localises intense areas of colour to folds, caverns, rims and holes creating an emotive, corporeal landscape. She also uses washes of porcelain to veil or completely obscure her marks: concealing and coyly revealing “their” sentiments.
Porcelain paperclay, coloured slips and underglazes.
2018.
Photography by Chloe Ackers