Rachel Kneebone @ The Foundling Museum

Rachel Kneebone is a British artist whose intricate works address and question the human condition. Five porcelain sculptures are display amongst the Museum’s historic collection.   Raft of the Medusa’s tumbling limbs and fractured swags are at once coquettish and ominous; their gleaming white surfaces and exquisite detail belie scenes of turmoil and collapse.
Using porcelain, a delicate material traditionally associated with fine tableware and Rococo exuberance (as exemplified by the plasterwork in the Museum’s Court Room), Kneebone subverts viewers’ expectations. Visibly exploiting the material properties of porcelain, she deliberately allows her works to distort and crack in the kiln, inviting the viewer to question the relationship between strength and vulnerability.