The collection for the Scottish Gallery is made of groups of apothecary jars, wall panels, jugs, platters and bowls all emulating the Italian Renaissance Maiolica style. Works include:

Two ‘Tree of Life’ Tile Panels

Inspired by the spectacular tile panels made by Andrea della Robbia, framed with relief sculptures of fruits, leaves and flowers, each of which had a particular symbolic meaning linked to the subject within the frame.  These two tile panels represent the Tree of Life; one male and one female, and illustrate some of the many 18th century slang words for male and female genitalia, framed with the appropriate emojis for both – the aubergine and the peach.  

I really like the way that some emojis, like the aubergine, have been repurposed to mean things other than the original intention – a great example of how people appropriate things and use them for their own purposes rather than sticking to the official meaning.   I love the typically British ‘seaside postcard’ humour of these 18^th century slang words.  Also, the slightly hostile element of some of the euphemisms for the female parts, such as ‘nettle bed’, ‘cauldron’ and ‘tinder box’ is a great window into the misogyny of the era.

The symbolism of the Snake

Is there another animal that has so many attributes, both bad and good, attached to it?  The entry for the Snake or Serpent in James Halls’ ‘Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art’ runs to a good page and a half, and I’m struck by the similarities between the negative attributes ascribed to the snake and those attached to women throughout history – duplicitousness, cunning, guile and the temptation to evil that are ascribed to both.  But the positive attributes of the snake are just as numerous: healing, intelligence, renewal, wisdom, and so on – and I wanted to highlight these qualities as opposed to the bad ones to give the snake a chance for rehabilitation:  a kind of ‘me too’ opportunity for the much-maligned snake.

Italian Renaissance symbols and Emojis

In the 15th and 16th centuries, most people were illiterate, but on the other hand they would have been very well-versed in the pictographic language of signs and symbols.  Anyone who saw an altarpiece in a church, for example, would have understood straight away what the significance of a dog, a pomegranate or a peacock contained in the imagery would have signified – and it struck me that the relatively recent and expanding lexicon of emojis used by all of us is a direct equivalent of those symbols of the past, understood by everyone.  To highlight this, I made a collection of frilled edge bowls, pedestal dishes and syrup jars that mix together Renaissance symbols and emojis.  It is quite hard to work out which is which, and there are a few overlaps.

Hand emojis

On a recent holiday to Italy, I discovered a dictionary of commonly used Italian hand signs and gestures.  Some of these were instantly recognisable as the same hand signs in the lexicon of emoji hand shapes – another ‘folk language’ that we all understand and use, and that has organically evolved over just the last few years as a pictorial shorthand for texting.  I was fascinated to learn along the way that the first emojis were invented by a group of Japanese high school girls to communicate with each other by pager – and look at how ubiquitous they are now!   

Mottoes To Celebrate Ageing

All mottoes must have been invented at one time or another.  I thought I might as well add to the pantheon with some of my own, focusing on the positive aspects of being an ageing, menopausal woman.  Some of these mottoes are Google-translated into Latin, to make them sound as if they’ve been around for a long time: plus, as I learned in the Boris Johnson era, any old thing sounds amazing when translated into Latin!

An Apothecary of Wellness Advice

John Wesley is well known as the theologist who led the movement known as Methodism in the early 18th century.  Less well known is the collection of home remedies for common ailments he published in 1732, called ‘Primitive Physic’.  Some of the advice for general health and well-being that Wesley wrote in the introduction to this book seems completely nonsensical to our modern understanding of physiology; on the other hand some of it is remarkably similar to ‘wellness’ advice shared today by popular health personalities including the much loved and missed Michael Moseley.  To celebrate Mr Moseley and to trace his advice back through time to John Wesley, I made a collection of albarello and wet drug jars, half inscribed with tips from Primitive Physic and the other half with Moseley’s ‘Just One Thing’ recommendations.

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