Historic Grandeur in Clay - Anna-Colette Hunt

I use clay to create vivid worlds you can step into. They may be universes or they may be mere fragments, it depends on how much I choose to reveal. I reinterpret forgotten folklores and conjure my own dream like tales to translate upon the clay. Viewers are compelled to investigate the ceramics as they search for hidden details on the layered surfaces. It is hard to deny the urge to touch the carved illustrations or curiously pick up an alluring stag beetle. The scenes and compositions captured upon the illustrated surfaces speak of historic grandeur and past traditions, whilst on closer inspection whisper darker sentiments delicately into your ear.

My work radiates a fascination with historic houses for their opulence, grandeur and for their natural history collections and specimens. I meet ‘characters’ at these places; they could take the form of a marble bust, a piece of furniture or taxidermy. Drawings of my findings are playfully translated onto the clay. Scale and setting is often distorted to enhance the whimsical ambience of the piece. Visual depth is achieved through the many layers of colours, markings, transfers and lustres fired upon the ceramic surface. The resulting objects exert a rich presence that delights, intrigues and can captivate for a lifetime.

Alongside studio collections I have created a large scale installation body of work called Stirring the Swarm, which was unveiled at Nottingham castle in 2012. After studying Nottingham’s Entomology collections I was inspired to write my own fairy tale in which the specimens mysteriously came back to life. As the story unfolded in my mind I started to fabricate the story with clay. In a year I created a beautiful and haunting swarm of 10,000 ceramic insects to infest Nottingham Castle. The audience were able to step into my fable, engaging with both the story and the sinister beauty of the installation. Two and a half years later the swarm continues to be both nationally and internationally exhibited, and still takes the most surprising and exciting pathways.

"The Newstead Oddities is a collection that features marble statues as ‘characters’, who are found on research adventures to museums and galleries. Anna’s first characters came from Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire. She often visits Natural Trust Houses and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London especially to meet new characters and find fresh faces. It might be particularly eccentric hair, or a mysterious sparkle in their eye that capture Anna’s attention and imagination. The artist likes to playfully assign heads to different bodies. Marie Antoinette’s clothing and body can often be spotted with a different head. What’s odder still is that sometimes the heads have a striking resemblance to the artists’ face- Anna likes to see if anyone will notice! The characters in the pieces are often joined by taxidermy animals or insects to create whimsical and dreamlike illustrations."