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2025.3
Indecorum: Bow Bottle (2025.3)
Catalogue Record
Collection
Maker
Ebony Russell
Title
Indecorum: Bow Bottle
Made in
Sydney
Date
2025
Materials and techniques
I work with Lumina Porcelain, a high-quality Australian porcelain produced by Keane Ceramics. Each sculpture begins with porcelain slurry, which I process by hand before loading into piping bags fitted with traditional cake decorating tips. Using this method, I extrude the coloured porcelain—layer by delicate layer—to build the form. The slurry is tinted with ceramic stains prior to piping, allowing me to create rich, vibrant surfaces. Once complete, the pieces are fired to a high stoneware temperature, typically between 1230–1280°C, resulting in durable yet intricate ceramic structures.
The pieces are made completely made by hand.
In my current art practice, the techniques and processes traditionally used in cake decorating have replaced ceramic techniques. The saccharine embellishment and delicate layers are intensified and given permanence with the use of high-fired porcelain. The specially prepared porcelain is slowly piped in layers - building up the curvilinear form. The ornament itself becomes the structure, undermining the intention of decoration's original purpose. Creating sculptures that appear to defy their own making; I embrace the decorative, disrupting the boundaries and hierarchies between high and low, art and craft, structure and decoration. Making in this way feels like magic to me, as if the piece forms itself from my wand-like tool.
The pieces are made completely made by hand.
In my current art practice, the techniques and processes traditionally used in cake decorating have replaced ceramic techniques. The saccharine embellishment and delicate layers are intensified and given permanence with the use of high-fired porcelain. The specially prepared porcelain is slowly piped in layers - building up the curvilinear form. The ornament itself becomes the structure, undermining the intention of decoration's original purpose. Creating sculptures that appear to defy their own making; I embrace the decorative, disrupting the boundaries and hierarchies between high and low, art and craft, structure and decoration. Making in this way feels like magic to me, as if the piece forms itself from my wand-like tool.
Dimensions
length: 18cm
width: 18cm
height: 37cm
Object number
2025.3
On view
99 Bishopsgate
Maker's statement
With its slender neck, rounded belly, and ornate pedestal base, Indecorum: Bow Bottle draws from the classical silhouette of a ceremonial vessel—elegant and upright, yet playfully embellished. The surface is encrusted with intricately piped ruffles and icing-like frills, building a dense skin of texture that softens and complicates the underlying form. Satin-like bows cascade down the body, their symmetrical placement and curling lines adding a performative, almost coquettish quality.
Through this meticulous process of extrusion—layer by layer using porcelain slurry tinted with ceramic stain—I reimagine the vessel not just as an object of function or beauty, but as a character in its own right. It carries posture and poise, yet revels in an unapologetic indulgence in excess. Indecorum: Bow Bottle resists restraint, embracing the decorative as a serious and subversive act—undermining long-held hierarchies between high and low, masculine and feminine, form and surface.
This piece was created specifically for Collect in London and draws inspiration from the first work in my Superfluous collection, held in the Powerhouse Museum collection Superfluous, 2021
Through this meticulous process of extrusion—layer by layer using porcelain slurry tinted with ceramic stain—I reimagine the vessel not just as an object of function or beauty, but as a character in its own right. It carries posture and poise, yet revels in an unapologetic indulgence in excess. Indecorum: Bow Bottle resists restraint, embracing the decorative as a serious and subversive act—undermining long-held hierarchies between high and low, masculine and feminine, form and surface.
This piece was created specifically for Collect in London and draws inspiration from the first work in my Superfluous collection, held in the Powerhouse Museum collection Superfluous, 2021