Hello, my name is Marah Whitehead and I am a ceramicist specialising in creating beautiful and individual sanitary ware.
Considering the frequency of use, I feel that the bathroom is under appreciated and so my work celebrates something that is often taken for granted. My idea is that the viewer will find my work controversial or desirable for it's uniqueness, yet either way will find it striking.
My current work explores the interaction between the body and bathroom. Blending body parts into a bathroom suite adds natural themes with humour onto a normally plain white clinical surface. The addition of floral motifs allows the surface to be beautifully decorated, with the unexpected form providing natural contours.
Using a highly decorated surface gives a subtle and delicate finish, one that is unexpected in this context. This also heightens the impact. I have found many Victorian methods of design influential to my practice. The Victorians used many elaborate decorations in their sanitary ware to disguise the supposedly taboo function. This turns the bathroom pieces into works of art, offering both aesthetics and functionality.
The thought of creating a unique bathroom suite endears me in the same way that having a desirable living room design does for many other people.
Site developed by kyle cooper
