Home is pleased to be exhibiting work by Sean Wadey in an upcoming group show opening on Wednesday the 26th of April.

Sean Wadey’s work addresses themes of commodification by contrasting high and low material values. Primarily, the hierarchy of commodities is called in to question via the notion of ‘quality’ and the subsequent perception of surface or, ‘finish’.

Borrowing tropes from the automotive industry, various processes of reproduction including cast ceramic and atomised painting are used to achieve a manufactured aesthetic. This high level of finish is contrast by the source of the material itself with paintings produced on primed pieces of cardboard or ceramic casts taken from mass produced objects. In a recent and ongoing series of works titled ‘Turbo Vase’, text and logo emblems are transferred from premium motor vehicles and reproduced in ceramic to adorn cast replicas of ceramic vases the artist sourced from thrift stores.

This combination of high and low value structures leaves the object with a ‘heightened state of materiality’. In doing so, Wadey highlights the fetishised nature of commodities and asks of the viewer to contemplate their own relationship to products around them.

Pictured is Turbo Vase, Slip-cast glazed ceramic and gold lustre. photo: Robin Hearfield.