Giselle Hicks
Artist Statement
My work uses the nest and the pillow form to address issues that deal with the home and the protective structures we build around ourselves, literally and psychologically. My work examines the contents of these structures as well as the structures themselves.
I am fascinated with the idea that skillful construction with delicate materials can yield a structure strong enough to house and protect the fledgling inhabitant of the nest. This process demands diligence, patience, careful craftsmanship, commitment and resilience. These same qualities are required to build and maintain relationships to a person, family, and community. These are the things that can be defined as our home.
As an object from the bed or bedroom, the pillow and quilt allude to ideas of comfort, support, rest, dreams, and privacy. Serving as a place of both intimacy and solitude, the bedroom accommodates the extremes of human experience. I am interested in the duality of this space. It is a place of isolation and sanctuary, as well as a place where we engage in some of our most revealing and formative experiences of human exchange.
The home is the structure that contains our most authentic and, therefore, most vulnerable selves. This work investigates these protective structures, their potential to be permeated, and what happens when the vulnerable inhabitant risks exposure.
Giselle Hicks, 2008
Pillow Talk:
In her most recent body of work, Giselle Hicks revives the ancient Chinese art of ceramic pillows. The origin of the ceramic headrest can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty (618-906), but the tradition flourished during the Song Dynasty (960-1126). This luxury stoneware was both functional and decorative.
For Hicks, the pillow is a symbol of the bedroom, and emotionally and psychologically charged space. The bedroom provides a place for solitude and retreat; a place where one sheds clothes, inhibitions and defenses.
Giselle used the slip-casting process to create multiple pillows. After the pillows were cast she used a Japanese technique, Mishima, to carve the surface and inlay color. Finally, the pillows were glazed and sandblasted. The resulting forms appear to be soft and pliable, as seductive as the best silk. The pillows become static, inert, and hard at a closer glance. The compulsive hand painted patterns mask the entire form, mesmerizing the eye.
Pillow Talk offers a selection of works created during Giselle’s residency in the Arts/Industry program at Kohler Co.
-Beth Lipman
Arts/Industry Coordinator
John Michael Kohler Art Center
Untitled, 2007