I’ll tell you how much I know about porcelain figurines: When they are expensive and you drop them on the floor, your gran gets quite cross. Let’s hope Jessica Harrison‘s creations are securely fastened and thoroughly impervious to any kind of clumsy seven-year-olds who may be lurking around the Galerie L.J. in Paris, ready to accidentally knock them off their pedestals at a moment’s notice.
Now I’ll tell you how much Scottish artist Harrison knows about porcelain figurines: Bloody loads. Not only did she sculpt this collection, being exhibited under the title Flash, but she completed her PhD in Sculpture at the Edinburgh College of Art last year. Named after the traditional tattoo templates, her conservative ball-gowned belles have been given a bad girl makeover with some finely applied ink (similarly subversive to Penny Byrne‘s psychotic ceramaic creations), and Harrison uses the archetypal symbols of body art – skulls, daggers and bleeding hearts – juxtaposed with the demure, feminine figures. Try not to break anything if you can visit the gallery; closing date is 26 June.
