Lily Shepley

My practice negotiates with concepts of childhood and nostalgia. I review the complexity of such terrain, referring to people’s tendencies to idealize in retrospect, whilst referencing the dichotomous nature of nostalgia. That it both resembles an experience of sickly regression and soothing comfort.

I regard ceramic antiques. Collectible ornaments of delftware and Staffordshire pottery, recognizing such memorabilia as nostalgic artifacts themselves, embodying a kind of sentimentality, not only in the way they’re collected but in the romantic fantasy they convey, of a pre-industrial, pastoral landscape, eerily quaint. Seemingly benign, as they exist within the home, eliciting a fanciful vision of domesticity. Through ceramic I seek to engage with such themes of decorative idealization and evocations of simplicity and innocence. I exaggerate, indulge and at times weaponize such features, as a means to investigate such strands of nostalgia.

Influenced by ceramic’s wider storytelling tradition, I heavily engage with both its sculptural and illustrative features, evoking narratives reminiscent of nursery rhymes. Employing both form and surface equally, I take significant influence from surreal children’s literature, citing its nostalgic quality. Referencing artist Leonora Carrington’s The Milk of Dreams (2013) I’ve come to consider motifs of bedtime stories and dreams more generally, as resembling core experiences of childhood. I reflect themes of the fantastical and uncanny, depicting bizarre events with unlikely creatures. I draw upon such motifs as means to further engage with notions of childhood, whilst hoping to create work that feels both peculiar and playful.