American Scenery and Souvenirs: Transferware by Paul Scott
Thru October
British artist Paul Scott reanimates historical transferware to create new works depicting scenes from contemporary American life.
In the 19th century, blue-and-white printed transferware plates portraying images of American scenery, cities, and their significant landmarks were mass-produced by potteries in Staffordshire, England for export to the United States. By the turn of the 20th century these works became tremendously popular collectibles, cherished by the American middle class as souvenirs of travel and experience.
Paul Scott’s current work combines the visual vocabulary and processes of historical transferware with unexpected and incongruous vignettes of life in America today, engaging with themes of globalization, energy consumption, capitalism, social justice, immigration, and the environmental impact of human activity. In “American Scenery and Souvenirs,” nuclear power plants, decaying urban centers, abandoned industrial sites, wildfires, and border walls intrude amidst the traditionally bucolic landscape. These provocative scenes subvert the picturesque aesthetic traditionally associated with American transferware, challenging the viewer to reconsider the nation’s environmental and social realities. The exhibition presents Scott’s work in dialogue with vintage Rowland & Marsellus transferware from the Lightner Museum collection to showcase Scott’s technical and poignant interventions.
Lightner Museum, 75 King Street, St. Augustine, lightnermuseum.org
