Suspiciously Beautiful: Rococo Delight Peach and Blue by Ebony Russell is a decorative vessel that draws attention to concepts of femininity in society.

To create this 28-centimetre-tall ceramic Russell has meticulously piped powdered pigment porcelain – just like icing a cake. Cake decorating is an activity once considered, according to gender stereotypes, to be exclusively ‘women’s work’. In this artwork, the layers of decoration not only become the structure but also provide the strength of the vessel. The artist has reflected on ‘architecture’ being perceived as the masculine strength of a structure, and ‘decoration’ being associated with the feminine, frivolous and inessential. In this work, Russell deliberately counters perceptions of the feminine as ‘lesser’.¹

Ebony Russell
Born in Melbourne in 1980, Ebony Russell is a Sydney-based artist and lecturer who has completed a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Honours) at Monash University in 2003, a Graduate Diploma in Education at The University of Melbourne in 2006, and a Master of Fine Art at The National Art School in 2019. Russell has won the Franz International Rising Star Award in 2018, the Meroogal Women’s Art Prize in 2022 and in 2023, received Highly Commended in the International Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Art Prize, London. Russell has exhibited in Australia and internationally.

References
1. Nikki Gemmell, ‘Ebony Russel’, Artereal, 2023. Accessed May 2024 via: https://artereal.com.au/exhibition/sydneycontemporary2023ebonyrussell/