Caroline Chouler Tissier RCA

This Greek Pyxis made in Athens in 760BC is the ancestor to our modern day vanity box and dressing table, containing cosmetics, fragrant oils and jewellery. However, the story of this exciting piece involves another important reference; that of the owner’s own death. A life with this pot was a life lived in full sight of one’s own mortality, as it was placed alongside the owner after their death in their grave. This piece is the subject of her project.

Her enquiries into ‘a life lived in sight of death’ have been an ongoing aspect of the work.

Even though the horses signify wealth, nobility and excitement, the piece spoke to her of the similarities with contemporary women’s domestic life. Women today face the same challenges of keeping up with appearances and their role in society as well as balancing their own aspirations and personal desires for fulfilment and adventure. The horses and geometric pattern ironically reference a sport that was restricted for these women; perhaps in their dreams they imagined themselves chariot racing in the afterlife, when they were truly free to live out their aspirations. Life in the 21st Century offers tremendous opportunities, if you are fortunately placed to take advantage of them. Her response to the piece has been an exploration of clay and heat-distorted plastics in these Covid-enforced limited facilities, yet the discovery of a flexible, coloured material has inspired her with a new direction and exploration of form. Her pieces explore the unknown emotional states of other people, and the personal stories they carry with them.

Top: Geometric Pyxis, 750-760BC. British Museum London

Above: Caroline Chouler Tissier. Reclining into my story