Joseph Hartley

Hello.

I am currently studying at Manchester Metropolitan University and have just finished my second year of a degree in Three Dimensional Design. I am over the moon to of been selected for this years 53degrees exhibition and I am looking forward to meeting the other people involved and seeing their work in the flesh.

My work is usually non-material specific but ceramics features often as it is something I have been immersed in from an early age.  This work entitled ‘Worth its Weight in Porcelain’ is a response to the way we use weight and interact with it – I’m quite taken with the idea of people using their own non-official measuring devices. Once, I wanted to bake a cake but had no weights, just a set of old scales, so I ended up assigning weights to various objects around the house and using them instead – for example, the dictionary acting as the kg. I knew they weren’t exact but that didn’t matter, the cake still came out delicious.

These pots are all thrown in porcelain and reduction fired. The numbers on the side refer to the exact weight in grams of each pot. The result is a set of objects that play with the functionality of ceramic vessels whilst also being a set of measuring devices. This duality is something that features often in my work and the playful take on weights is a reflection of my own passion for cooking from the heart.

You can see more of my work at http://www.josephjameshartley.wordpress.com