Border-Line Item Number: 3417/1 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
White ceramic sculpture of five upright baby-like standing figures, all facing the same direction, in a row. The first four are front sides, the fifth is the backside of the figure. All five stand on a raised base. Made of white clay with a clear glaze, however the base has some black on the side.
Made at MOA in 2018, during the artist's twelve-month residency where she was studying and responding to the Anabaptist, Faenza and Delftware held in the Koerner European ceramics collection. During her first months, she concentrated on transposing the non-representational imagery found on much of the non-representational Anabaptist ware onto her figurative finials. Sloan also spent time with narrative plates and painted scenes found on Faenza and Delftware pottery, and over time she became more aware of the organization of the Koerner Gallery, and the principles guiding Dr Koerner’s intentions when he amassed his collection. At the heart of the collection is the Haban ware, made by the Anabaptists, who fled Florence due to religious persecution. Dr Koerner’s collection goes beyond gathering together related objects and instead expresses his philosophical outlook of religious freedom and pacifism, through the objects that he surrounded himself with during his lifetime – important messages in this time of worldwide migration.