Unswept Floor (Tesserae)
Glazed and unglazed ceramic, found glass and ceramic mosaic tiles, glazed porcelain broom-head, wooden branch handle, 2019.

Commissioned response to Ai Weiwei: Unbroken at the Gardiner Museum (Winter-Spring, 2019)

"Unswept Floor (Tesserae) takes inspiration from the playfulness of ancient Greek and Roman dining-area mosaics (asarotos oikos) in which remnants of meals are realistically rendered as if discarded and strewn across the floor.

Displayed at the entrance to the exhibition, these small ceramic objects contrast with the grand scope and themes of Ai Weiwei’s works by focusing on the intimacy of an artist’s studio practice.
In this piece, Stern has assembled and recreated the fragmentary but tangible results of experimentation and inchoate ideas that accumulate on a metaphorical studio floor.

Like Ai Weiwei's, Stern's artistic practice is enriched by historical approaches to working with ceramics, including the cheeky recreation of common objects in clay. Unswept Floor (Tesserae) also reflects on ceramics as a historically intimate material occupying a space in daily lived experience, and preserving indexically the hand and thoughts of those who work in the material."

 

www.gardinermuseum.on.ca/event/nurielle-stern-unswept-floor-tesserae