Leonora Lockhart is a London-based artist, graduating from the last two-year Ceramics & Glass M.A. at the Royal College of Art. Prior to the RCA, she worked as an illustrator and art teacher and graduated from Central St Martins with a 1st in Ceramic Design. Lockhart explores the voices of women lost from the established art world. It follows a thread of inquiry which has matured through lived experience and has taken a more hands on exploration of female identity through auto ethno-biographical and primary source research. Lockhart enjoys a collaborative practice as 2nd Shift with Isis Dove-Edwin, researching and responding to the impact of being an artist-mother.
Leonora Lockhart
I have always felt that my creative practice and voice have been hindered by domestic responsibility, either imposed upon me by financial limitations, motherhood or societal norms, but also self-imposed from a misplaced sense of obligation. It has led to a deep sense of unease and discomfort around the domestic space, and it got me thinking about other women, and specifically women artists and makers. What of the lives they have led? Have they faced the same feelings of constraint? Of forfeiture? Of regret? Are the feelings of elation and satisfaction, as domestic walls break down, echoed elsewhere? Or do some embrace a practice that stems from a kitchen table, rather than the studio or workshop?
[Photo: Katia Autier]
The Void Space - an installation
I collect the oral histories of women artists to explore the implications of domestic and societal expectations on a creative life. Through material culture… the stuff of home, I endeavour to weave the life experiences of women artists into wider social, cultural, and political contexts to probe the implications and repercussions of gender differences that contribute to a tension…? a disparity…? an imbalance within the art world paradigm. These narratives of domesticity are often expressed through the hereditary material of home - ceramic or glass - and disrupt and remould the established language of domestic objects to reveal overlooked, hidden narratives of home.
'I Get Up Half An Hour Early...' detail from 'The Void Space'. Material: glass. –
[Photo: Phil Wilson]
'I Get Up Half An Hour Early... ' detail from 'The Void Space'. Material: glass. –
[Photo: Phil Wilson]
'Put Me Back Together', detail from 'The Void Space'. Materials: glass, resin. –
Broken and imperfect glass, repaired using a variation of the Japanese method of Kintsugi. [Photo: Phil Wilson]
'Representation of Women artists in Britain' - detail from 'The Void Space'. Material: glazed ceramic. –
In response to the Freelands Foundation publication, 'Representation of Women Artists in Britain' authored by Dr. Charlotte Bonham-Carter these pieces show the statistics in vessel form. [Photo: Phil Wilson]
'Women Artists In Britain' - detail from 'The Void Space'. Material: glazed ceramic. –
Bar charts in vessel form. On the left: Artworks in the Government Art Collection (2021) Men: 88.3% Women: 11.7%. On the right: Solo exhibitions in London's major commercial galleries during Frieze week (2021). Men: 54.2% Women: 45.8%. [Photo: Phil Wilson]
'My Father Used To...' detail from 'The Void Space'. Material: glass. –
[Photo: Phil Wilson]
Detail from 'My Father Used To...' Material: glass. –
[Photo: Phil Wilson]
'Mother's Little Helper' detail from 'The Void Space'. Material: glass. –
[Photo: Roy Reed]
Mug - as part of an artwork intervention by 2nd Shift. –
Material: glazed ceramic with decal surface decoration with quotes from workshop participants that were facilitated at the R.C.A. [Photo: 2nd Shift]
Mugs - as part of an artwork intervention by 2nd Shift. –
Material: glazed ceramic with decal surface decoration with quotes from workshop participants that were facilitated at the R.C.A. [Photo: 2nd Shift]
Parent? Mother? Artist? Symposium, May 2023
Parent? Mother? Artist? Symposium, May 2023. –
Front row from left to right: Hettie Judah, Dr. Charlotte Bonham-Carter, Prof. Freddie Robbins, Dr. Tessa Peters. Missing from the image is panelist Izzie Kpobie-Mensah.
Back row: Leonora Lockhart (left) & Isis Dove-Edwin (right)
In Collaboration with:
Parent? Mother? Artist?
In response to academic and popular literature around the topic, as well as our own lived experience, we have been expanding the space for critical dialogue about the impact of being a parent on artistic careers, and the implications of educational structures on the lived experience of parent-artist-students. It is an area that until recently has been largely overlooked within the creative field and was explored through round-table workshops, a creative response, and a symposium.