Jennie Sharman-Cox

Found objects, antiques and collectables, have always played an important part in my work and this has inevitably led me to assemblage as a way to express an emotion or explore a theme.

The use of shrine-like boxes, with their religious overtones, enables me to play out three dimensional stories, often from the female perspective. Drawing on historical references, figurative art, sacred imagery and mythology I can examine our curious fascination with death and desire, love and loss, the morbid and macabre.

A line of poetry or a piece of text can suggest a narrative, or this can gradually emerge as I gather things together. Some of the antique objects, beautiful in their own right, have their own tales to tell and then I can use my clay and textile skills to complete the scene, hopefully with some humour and always a little theatricality