Fabulous Forgeries

Fabulous Forgeries began as a playful exploration — an exercise in translating well-known paintings into porcelain. Rather than exact replicas, these works reinterpret iconic images through hand-built, three-dimensional form.

The Banksy pieces rely on reduction and contrast. Working primarily in black and white, I focused on silhouette and negative space, allowing light and shadow to define the imagery. In Make Love Not War, I deliberately enlarged and repeated the roses, shifting the emphasis from gesture to accumulation. Building each flower by hand slowed the image down, giving physical weight to what was originally a painted symbol.

The Van Gogh works operate differently. Here, repetition and texture become central. Individual petals, leaves, and flower heads are built separately and assembled into dense compositions. Particular attention is given to surface variation, translating painterly brushwork into sculptural texture. Shadow naturally becomes more active in these works, emerging from the depth and layering of the porcelain elements.

While distinct from my abstract and installation-based practice, Fabulous Forgeries reflects my ongoing interest in labour, repetition, and how images shift when translated into material form.

Make Love Not War