Madeline Poultridge
Prosopagnosia Field Guide (how to make friends)
Statement
I utilize craft-based mediums, particularly ceramic and textile, as a tool to process the connection between the domestic and the conceptual. However I experiment aesthetically, I am forever deeply rooted in utility and the personal relationships that are formed between human and tool. My work explores the social quality of craft and its ability to reflect or critique our own habits. How does the function or dysfunction of the work mirror the processes of the bodymind? How do the social duties of tableware mirror the social duties we have to perform within our communities? I aim to create relational objects that exist within domestic environments; objects that intimately ask viewers and users to consider their role in the larger social web. Drawing inspiration from quotidian possessions and routines, I explore behavior, relational proxemics, and what it means to exist in constant conversation with those around you.
Prosopagnosia Field Guide (how to make friends) is a visual depiction of my experience with prosopagnosia, also known as facial blindness. This work, a departure from my functional habits, utilizes the ceramic 3D printer as an analogue to the brain, dissecting its methods of visual/interpersonal data collection, cataloguing, and deployment. In some ways the work represents the breakdown of a vital social process; in others, it showcases the development of alternate solutions to recognize and relate to the people around me. Pictured are unfired test prints, 3D photogrammetry scans, and sketches with notes. The work in its final form will consist of life-size scrambled prints with gold surface decoration to denote the subjects’ identifying features.
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