Joanna Dorking

 

'Stories in Stone'

 

“Every two weeks a tribal elder dies with the last remaining knowledge of his or her people’s language, 

 and along with them dies many other living expressions—the crafts, skills, beliefs, lore—of a unique heritage”.

 

The Vanishing Cultures project: www.vcproject.org

 

Classical Garden urns with narrative surface design will be formed to tell stories of impermanence,

I use a variety of hand-building techniques for different sections of the piece, using different clays and coloured body stains

Being born and bred in East London I see before my eyes a vanishing way of life and a dying culture that is rich in meaning, to celebrate a way of life that I see fading I need to commemorate, some of it mythical linked to the Pearly Kings and Queens, but much of it understood through my own lived experience, drawing upon memories of London and all the different layerings of culture.

 

http://showtime.arts.ac.uk/Joanna