Used ’till the very end is a ceramic glazed object depicting hands trapped in an invisible cubic barrier.
Severed hands are used as a symbol of craft, creative or manual labor viewed through the lens of societal and corporate ideals – where they are utilized as mere tools until they complete disintegrate. To what extent does work truly ennoble? These hands remain in use even after death, they have been assigned a new purpose as the legs of a coffee table. Further underscoring the power dynamic between them and anyone who might sit at the table.
The hands are contored and deformed, even in death they struggle to break free from the invisible barrier imposed upon them. They comunicate with one another, collide, separate and merge into a single entity. A mass of human remains.
For this project a transparent light grey glaze was chosen for the light colored ceramic body, combining to create hands with deathly ashen appearance.
My aim was to highlight how some professions are dehumanized. How they are reduced to mere production processes, overshadowed by the final product. It reaches the point where the consumer no longer realizes that on the other side there is a human being who had to perform the work so the product can exist, no matter how small or big part.
