It is working across the surface that is key, that is where my hand and my imagery take shape.
With a touch of humour, lightness and freshness, Charlotte’s figures move comfortably across dishes, canvases, prints and paper. Her imagery may come from her research at the archives of the ceramic Spode Museum Trust archive of copper engravings in Stoke-on-Trent, the Wallace Collection or the Victoria Gallery in Liverpool, amongst others.
Motifs and patterns found on the original engravings and archives are printed, scanned, de-constructed, re-drawn, cut and layered to shape the graphic language for Charlotte’s images. Her signature women, presented in the form of silhouettes, are dressed in pattern and form part of the landscapes through which they meander. The women make an appearance to playfully defy historical conventions. They stand on teapots, use tea sieves as mirrors and microphones, and nonchalantly walk across or rest upon the surfaces of tea crockery. The texts appear around some of the edges of the ware, as incidental notes that reference literature, politics and the economics of tea.
Charlotte appropriates every media with confidence. Her narrative is unique, regardless of the support that she chooses to use. She was awarded the Jerwood Drawing Prize for drawing with a scalpel. She works by hand and digitally, both with drawing through which she builds an 'archive' of usable visual imagery and with collage. Since her residencies at Spode (1998-2004) and at the Wallace Collection (2005), Charlotte has been drawn to ceramics, using vases, dinner or tea sets as a platform where we can find her signature female figure meandering. Her installations may contain more than 350 pieces, all individually and patiently hand cut and layered.
Her work is represented in many public collections including Ariana Museum in Geneva, Brighton City Museum & Art Gallery, British Council, Women’s Art Collection New Hall University of Cambridge, Worcester City Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Charlotte Hodes is Professor in Fine Art at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London.