Elyse Pignolet’s fresh body of work expands on past themes, while pushing toward a new, more personal, direction. Included is an installation that towers 10 feet tall and contains numerous smaller, ceramic pieces. While the installation is one large sculpture of its own, each smaller piece is also created to stand alone. Included, too, is Pignolet’s Chinoiserie-style wallpaper, watercolor paintings on paper, and a mirror set within a ceramic frame. This exhibition illustrates the feminist themes of Pignolet’s recent body of work, yet it is also a response to being grounded over the many months of the pandemic, as well a reaction to the mass shooting and killing of eight people in Atlanta in March 2021.

The ceramic pieces highlight misogynistic discourse in a feminine and decorative medium. Hand-painted and glazed platters, vases, and dishes – all in the classic blue and white tradition that evolved from colonialist expansion – hold messages that quietly unfold. Words, phrases, and images draw attention to the denigrating language women face. Of particular interest to Pignolet is the word “bitch,” which is commonly used today, but the artist reconsiders the historical context from the 1400s, one to degenerate women by calling them less than human. Images of fists grasping keys, with the ends of the keys pointed outward through the fingers, and small handheld sticks or plastic contraptions allude to the advice women get on how to defend themselves while walking alone. The cryptic messages that are surrounded by feminine, decorative elements are speaking to a world where women need to be on the defensive against abuse.

Recent works move in a new direction that is personal to the artist – a reaction to the Atlanta spa shootings of March 16, 2021. One of the three targeted businesses in the killing spree was named the Gold Spa, and Pignolet has created a reimagined Gold Spa wallpaper that shows an all too familiar pagoda and orientalist theme. The murderer stated that he targeted Asian women working at these spas because of his “sex addiction,” and he wanted to eliminate the “temptation.” Ceramic pieces include phrases used by the police who said he was “at the end of his rope” and “had a bad day.” The messages are cryptic and surrounded by the decorative beautiful embellishments with careful handmade attention, yet convey a sense of dread. Pignolet’s interest in contrast is embedded in each individual artwork.

The larger sculpture/installation is a monument for the otherness of women. As a Filipina from Oakland, Pignolet is exploring a theme that is personally close to her. Included in the show is a mirror piece with the text: “EXOTICAF” etched in the glass. This artwork deals with the idea of language as a tool of othering but references art history. The symbolic meaning of mirrors throughout art history is often ambiguous, but two apparently contradictory themes emerge: one associated with the virtue of truth and the other with a perversion of truth.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born in Oakland, CA, Elyse Pignolet is an American with Filipino heritage, living and working in Los Angeles. She attended California State University, San Francisco, studying Fine Arts. In 2001 she lived in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain, studying arts and Spanish language. She completed her BFA degree in ceramics at CSU Long Beach in 2007. Her studies included an intensive ceramics tour through Mainland China, and she also attended the International Ceramics Biennale in Korea.  She was awarded a CSU Long Beach Travel Scholarship for Art, and traveled to Lisbon, Portugal to study traditional tile murals. Pignolet was awarded a fellowship to Ballinglen Arts Center, Ireland. She has traveled extensively in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, and South America.

Pignolet works primarily in ceramics and her work has been inspired by and dealt with various themes including political and social issues, the dialectic between feminism and misogyny, inequality, and cultural stereotypes. Exploring the boundaries between ceramics, painting and sculpture, Pignolet attempts to place the permanence and traditions of ceramics with the fleeting and transitory nature of the contemporary world.

Imbued with traditional porcelain decoration from around the globe, the vessels in Pignolet’s newest ceramic series contain familiar patterns and motifs but upon closer inspection, we see that the traditional floral patterns are composed with images and text containing politically confrontational, unapologetic messaging; ubiquitous flower patterns have been reimagined to reveal suggestive innuendos and tropes that are all too common in our language and culture, as well as, unsettling and demeaning comments on women, sexual assault and the everyday experience of street harassment.   

Her works have been featured in a number of publications including the Los Angeles Times, La Weekly, Juxtapoz Magazine, The Huffington Post, KQED, Ceramics Art + Perception, LoDown Magazine, Artillery, Art and Cake LA.