Artists statement

Renee So was born in Hong Kong and raised in Australia; she studied at RMIT. Her experience of the two cultures and their postcolonial legacy is central to her artistic explorations. Since moving to London in 2005, So has examined the history of European sculpture, both grand and humble.

So’s small-scale ceramic busts draw from antiquity, such as military and aristocratic portraiture, while her processes are entirely modern and the glazed surface lustrous and sleek. Her characters seem from an unknowable place or time; their references to classical portraiture busts lend a proud and dignified air. Yet So gently mocks her historical subjects, creating stylised facial features and crowning them with anachronistic wigs that speak of a multiplicity of cultural and historical lineages and styles.

Physical description

Glazed ceramic