“In my current art practice the sole use of decoration to create works connects to the historical discrimination of decoration through the rise of modernism in the late nineteenth and twentieth century.

My practice challenges the established perceptions of cultural and artistic practices that were coded as feminine, and henceforth, insignificant. I explore feminine sensibility and autobiographical narration of self while engaging with personal and collective experiences of gender construction, drawing from my own experiences in childhood and adolescence. Socially imposed gender stereotypes and categories have shaped my life as a young woman, mother, wife and ultimately as a person.

#OTT is a collection of decorative pieces constructed solely from decoration and decorated with decorative ornaments.

The decorative element of this work is not strictly essential (except that it is). It is a necessary unnecessary pleasure.

I wish to celebrate the decorative, promiscuous aesthetics and politics of impurity, the superficial, excess and delight – with pleasure.

Exploring desire, longing and notions of nostalgia these candelabra and vase forms incorporate techniques and processes traditionally used in cake decorating. The saccharine embellishment and delicate layers are intensified and given permanence with the use of high-fired porcelain. By focusing on decoration as my main form of construction, I recreate my childhood dreams. Mimicking the elaborate decoration of a dessert or celebratory cake, these dreamlike sculptures appear to defy gravity while simultaneously dripping with the heavy weight of desire. I push the medium to its breaking point, inviting collapse and instability in the form.  Once the damage is imminent I switch my focus to one of preservation and protection, attempting to save it from ruin and total deterioration. “

Ebony Russell, Artist Statement (2020)

Artist Biography

Ebony Russell is an Australian artist based in Sydney. She is a recent graduate of The National Art School, Sydney, where she completed a Masters of Fine Arts in Ceramics.  In 2018, Russell was selected as a finalist in the biannual Sydney Living Museum – Meroogal Women’s Art Prize and was also awarded the International Franz Rising Star Award for excellence in porcelain, which resulted in a residency in Jingdezhen, China in 2019.  More recently her work has been selected as a finalist in the 2019 Muswellbrook Art Prize, the 2019 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize and again as a finalist in the 2019 Franz Rising Star Award. She is currently a featured artist in the Australian Ceramic Journal – Porcelain Edition.

Russell’s recent series of ceramic works, ‘Piped Dreams’ explores notions of nostalgia and desire as they are imbued in collected objects. Using an experimental construction method to produce sculptures made solely of piping, a technique usually reserved for the cake decorating craft of royal icing, Russell has developed a way creating forms that seem to defy their own making.

Releasing the decorative detail from a foundation or form usually needed for adherence or an anchor point for attachment, Russell incorporates confessional and autobiographical elements into her artworks to recreating her lived experience through a feminised craft.