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2025.4
Suspiciously Beautiful: OXO Openwork (2025.4)
Catalogue Record
Collection
Maker
Ebony Russell
Title
Suspiciously Beautiful: OXO Openwork
Made in
Sydney
Date
2023
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 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 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 (urn): 26cm
width (urn): 16cm
height (urn): 35cm
length (pedestal): 18cm
width (pedestal): 18cm
height (pedestal): 42cm
Object number
2025.4
Credit
Brookfield Properties Craft Award Winner 2025. In partnership with Crafts Council Collection. Purchased with support from Brookfield Properties.
On view
99 Bishopsgate
Maker's statement
Suspiciously Beautiful: OXO Openwork challenges traditional notions of femininity and utility through sugar-coated subversion. Hand-piped from porcelain in a technique borrowed from cake decoration, the piece takes the form of a classical urn, rendered open and hollow—“an illusion of a pot,” as Ebony Russell puts it, complete with orifices and absence. Balanced atop a blue, candy-like pedestal, the urn’s vibrant red and blush palette suggests sweetness, but look closer: beneath the icing lies resistance.
Influenced by feminist voices such as Margaret Atwood and Rebecca Solnit, Russell’s work reclaims decoration as radical. It is unashamedly feminine and deeply thoughtful, refusing to conform to patriarchal expectations of perfection or purpose. Handles curve like fallopian tubes; surfaces blister, gape, and ooze. These vessels aren’t meant to hold—they are meant to speak.
As Russell says, “My art is all sugar—but sugar is a seductive, dangerous product.” This piece is beautiful, yes—but also bruised, angry, and defiantly useless. A fairytale façade with a bite, OXO Openwork is a declaration: femininity is not fragile—it is formidable.
Influenced by feminist voices such as Margaret Atwood and Rebecca Solnit, Russell’s work reclaims decoration as radical. It is unashamedly feminine and deeply thoughtful, refusing to conform to patriarchal expectations of perfection or purpose. Handles curve like fallopian tubes; surfaces blister, gape, and ooze. These vessels aren’t meant to hold—they are meant to speak.
As Russell says, “My art is all sugar—but sugar is a seductive, dangerous product.” This piece is beautiful, yes—but also bruised, angry, and defiantly useless. A fairytale façade with a bite, OXO Openwork is a declaration: femininity is not fragile—it is formidable.