Work Statement

Fitz Gibbon’s hand-built ceramic sculptures reveal the important role women play in nourishing society through food, motherhood, and education, while exposing the tension inherent in the division of gendered roles. In addition to produce, compositions may include replicas of classic toys, inflatables, and china, as contrasting symbols of nature vs nurture and the natural vs plastic environment. The playful mash up of cultural references in ceramic materials connects contemporary struggles, such as the gun violence epidemic, with historical times.

Ring Around the Rosie weds the macabre plague origins of the children’s rhyme with the idyllic Portland Vase. The blue and white Jasperware bowl shows military men in a circumnavigating dance, while whipped cream leaks through “bullet holes” to signify lost innocence of childhood in the “land of milk & honey”. By hand making larger than life copies of toys and production pottery patterns in the low fire range, my work negates the machine process and brings a funk approach to the domestic use of popular items in daily life.