Redacted Mugs

Since 2020, I’ve been buying mugs from charity shops. These domestic rejects are made cheap by the designs they carry, be they novelty messages, outdated merchandise or the lone survivors of a matching set. They mingled together awkwardly on my shelf despite their perfectly usable condition and regular shapes.

Redaction covers a text with its black slick and creates a space of secrecy. I have used black ceramic decal, cut it by hand and grafted it onto the existing graphics (like a temporary tattoo). When fired in the kiln it melts into the glaze, leaving a vague trace of its previous design. Which information to hide and what to leave is at the creative discretion of the redactor. The mugs become a new set, belonging together, their designs rendered unknown.