Manufactured Affection (2002)

Manufactured Affection was a body of work exploring the idea of affection, in the form of a kiss or a nose rub, objectified, mass produced and distributed. The idea for the work was influenced by my experience of working in the gift and homewares industry, where I experienced the idea of the commercialisation of human emotion as an industry. I was interested in representing the concept of commercialised affection as a dislocated and detached object. By considering this idea, it lead to the creation of these hand built sculptural ceramic forms.

This work was shown in Artificial Happiness at both Mustard Seed Garden Gallery, Beijing (2003) and RMIT Gallery, Melbourne (2004) curated by Zhang Zhaohui, alongside contemporary Chinese artists. 

Photography by Olivier Krischer