Potion Bottle

Medium: glazed ceramic

Date:  1996

Dimensions: 6" H X 4" W X 5.5"  D

Description: Part of the “Chinoiserie” body of work using glazed ceramics, which playfully re-invents icons and traditions from popular culture and art history.  The work is inspired by a mix of Eastern and Western cultures in the Pacific Northwest, and their influence on a personal narrative and expression.

Kathleen Whitney, in a 1998 Sculpture magazine article; Claudia Fitch: Just Beautiful, says “Several of Fitch’s pieces pay homage to the refined and stylized forms from which they are borrowed: Potion Bottle #1 and Potion Bottle #2 (both 1997–98) are "tiny" and "exquisite" in the same way that Japanese net-suke are. Netsuke are finely detailed, diminutive works of sculpture, generally carved from ivory, horn, or wood. They typically depict human figures or subjects and are often grotesque or distorted caricatures. In these small pieces, Fitch has recreated the wit and grotesquerie of her source via near-direct appropriation.”
— Sculpture, September 1998 Vol.17 No. 7