




Róisín O’Connor
Cocoon Monolith, 2023
Black Clay and Manganese
H. 50 x W. 40 xD. 30 cm
H. 19 3/4 x W. 15 3/4 x D. 11 3/4 inches
H. 19 3/4 x W. 15 3/4 x D. 11 3/4 inches
Copyright The Artist
Further images
'The first of the largest pieces with a rupture, and has been glazed in a oxide manganese rich glaze with creates the metallic lustre effect. With this piece I like...
"The first of the largest pieces with a rupture, and has been glazed in a oxide manganese rich glaze with creates the metallic lustre effect. With this piece I like to ask the viewer – What would emerge from such a cocoon and what kind of life did it live? This piece was inspired by Louise Bourgeois’s large bronze sculpture Maman, and the nest under the belly of the great mother spider.
Wheel-thrown – It is quite important to note, that like a bird or insect I make all the nests and cocoons with my body on the pottery wheel. I do not carve or sculpt post-production as it were. It is entirely conceived on the wheel using my hands and the most basic throwing tools made of wood and salvaged plastic. These cocoons are spun like a moth makes silk; however, I prefer clay, and they are altered directly on the wheel; they are intuitively made in the same way a bird knows how to make a nest though it never saw its parent doing it."
Wheel-thrown – It is quite important to note, that like a bird or insect I make all the nests and cocoons with my body on the pottery wheel. I do not carve or sculpt post-production as it were. It is entirely conceived on the wheel using my hands and the most basic throwing tools made of wood and salvaged plastic. These cocoons are spun like a moth makes silk; however, I prefer clay, and they are altered directly on the wheel; they are intuitively made in the same way a bird knows how to make a nest though it never saw its parent doing it."