Shary Boyle: Marvelous Kitsch Oddities

25 Sep 2007 Category: Arts & Crafts, Worldwide

Shary Boyle: Marvelous Kitsch Oddities

Would your grandma notice something strange if you left this on the mantlepiece? "Ouroboros", porcelain object by Canadian artist Shary Boyle, questions our perception of beauty by creeping from behind a kitsch side.

A while ago, Die Gestalten Verlag sent us a book called FURNISH - Furniture and Interior Design for the 21st Century featuring a fascinating series of quite intriguing porcelain figures made by Canadian artist Shary Boyle. She is not only taking the general perception of female beauty to an ironic porcelain extreme, Shary also paints, draws and collaborates with Canadian singer Feist a electropunk queen Peaches. PingMag chased down the porcelain artist when she was briefly in London and tried not make too much broken pieces of these strange fragile objects…

Written by Chiemi


Cover of “FURNISH - Furniture and Interior Design for the 21st Century” by DGV. © 2007 Die Gestalten Verlag, Berlin

Shary, how did you first encounter porcelain?

In early 2002, I was travelling through the American west coast, when an artist friend in Seattle suggested I take a course, knowing my drawings and miniature sculptures. So, I took a weekend workshop on “porcelain figurine-making” taught by an 86-year old woman in the basement of her suburban home. She used factory-bought moulds and assembled the figurines, painted and decorated them and hardened them with many firings in the kiln. After that weekend, I knew immediately that porcelain was a medium I had to focus on. I loved it!

What is the special quality of porcelain for you?

I’m very interested in how porcelain figurines like Royal Daulton and Meissen seem to embody the very essence of feminine beauty, class, fragility and “good taste”. At the same time, they are mocked as kitsch and not considered serious by the art world at all.


Lovely blossoms! “Snowball” (2006) by Shary Boyle, also in DGV’s “FURNISH” book.

Oh, lost her head! Untitled figures, 2005. Also in “FURNISH”.

I’m seduced by how beautiful porcelain is, especially these elegant figures and their amazingly detailed costumes with lace and gold. I knew that I could take these female figures that are so deep in our psyche and alter them to make comments on the oppression and restrictions such precious beauty has placed on women through history. Also, I wanted them to be full of magic and very powerful, like talismans or voodoo dolls: exquisite and confrontational at once.


Look closer, what’s different? Untitled figure, 2004.

Mutant femininity: untitled figure, 2004.

They are, indeed. And so exquisitely crafted. Did you produce them all by yourself?

Yes, they are all handmade by me. My figurines are very labour intense and each one of them takes about a month to make. This series uses premade basic figure moulds from hobby companies as I wanted to use company moulds in order to mimic the traditional style of figurines as much as possible. I assemble all the parts, then sculpt new parts from porcelain clay to customise the figures. Then, there are are many stages after that.

What would be the most complicated part of the making process then?

The complicated and fragile lace costumes are definitely the hardest part! It’s made by dipping real lace into liquid porcelain and carefully arranging it on the figurine. The high temperature of the kiln burns the fabric away and leaves a skeleton of the lace in its place. Then I paint the sculptures with squirrel brushes and old-fashioned pigments and oils, and the final stage is then applying the gold or silver by brush. Each figure is fired in stages as many as six or seven times. I work in the basement ceramic studio of a hobbyist in the suburbs of Toronto. She helps me with the technical parts and works the kiln.


What a fragile lace! Untitled figure, 2005.

And a fragile face! Untitled figure, 2004.

How do people react when seeing your figurines?

So many have responded to this enthusiastically, it has been incredible! One of the most memorable responses has been from a very obscure museum in Paisley, Scotland. They e-mailed me after somehow finding my work on the internet. The lone curator was so excited about the figurines she purchased two sight unseen for the permanent collection of the museum. I hand-carried the work by airline, as it’s extremely fragile, to this amazing village outside of Glasgow. Now, the sculptures will live for the rest of their lives in this huge castle-like museum, which seemed kind of crumbling and haunted! A long way from home….


From the famous story: “La Bête” (2006) will live for the rest of its life in a Scottish village.

“Haunt” is another sculpture staying in Scotland now.

How will this porcelain series go on?

There are fifteen figurines in the lace draped series, some of which were published in “Furnish”. I am currently working on my next series of porcelain sculptures also inspired by 18th century porcelain from Germany, but much more complex. Again, I’m making all of the original sculptures and moulds by myself, and there will be many figures in each sculpture. I expect the new series to be ready by autumn 2008.

We are eagerly awaiting them! What are you planning at the moment?

Next year I will be quite busy creating my new porcelain series, as well as having various “live-drawing projection” performances in Canada and all over the globe. See my website for upcoming shows…

Shary, thank you so much for letting us hold your fragile sculptures for a moment!

53 Comments

  1. wow! I just love kitsch, and this is some of the best around, Shary. Hope to see your new series in 2008!
    Will you ever come to Italy to show the real ones?
    Please let me know…
    Rudy. Milan, Italy

    Posted by: Rudy on September 25th, 2007 at 10:46 pm

  2. fascinating work!

    i liked reading about the craft and the process involved in making these.

    Posted by: rey-o on September 26th, 2007 at 12:22 am

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    Posted by: Shary Boyle: Marvelous Kitsch Oddities on September 26th, 2007 at 4:22 am

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  5. i love the one where she’s lost her head. it appeals to my twisted self. overall these are very cool pieces. i normally wouldn’t stop and look at things like this but i’m glad i read this article!

    Posted by: dendoo on September 26th, 2007 at 8:33 pm

  6. Now that’s some strange stuff!

    Posted by: Okinawa on September 27th, 2007 at 6:07 pm

  7. the “Haunt” one creep me~~~coolllllll~~~

    Posted by: tunokuda on September 27th, 2007 at 11:20 pm

  8. WOW! that was a great interview, and awesome work! always good to see a ceramic artist getting a little spotlight :]

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