Container #3 (Mustard) by Katy Bergman Cassell

Wall Piece

Enamel, Copper, Found Silver-Plate

sgraffito, sifting, wet-packing

3 x 3 x 3 inches

My “Domestic Destruction” series combines repurposed silver-plate tableware with enamel imagery relating to serving meals to family and friends. The dishes offer practical solutions to framing the enamels, while connoting a past life of entertaining guests in a well-appointed home. In contrast, the sgraffito imagery illustrates the casual plasticware often used today. Each piece in the series includes musings on the ideas of containers, consumerism, and motherhood, and how my desire for a pleasing domestic environment negatively impacts the “environment” as a whole. Humor, absurdity, and futility are infused in the work.

While some societies live in harmony with the earth, others consider the earth a resource to be extracted. As an artist who consumes the earth’s resources, I am complicit in its exploitation. Yet, I am compelled to make art, as my practice synthesizes my intellectual interests, absorbs my emotions, and communicates my fears. Despite the fragility of glass, by fusing it to metal, I create a durable image that is impervious to degradation by sunlight or water. In this series, the longevity of the medium is purposely contrasted with the disposability of the imagery depicted.