From Whisky to Tea and Back Again, 2025
Broken Dinnerware, plastic bucket, grout
20″ x 10″ x 10″
This piece represents the shift that many Detroit’s made from the working class to the working middle class and the objects of desire that could physically express such shift. In the 1920’s and 30’s my grandparents used jugs, crocks and heavy earthenware pots to ferment and store food. They are symbols of fortitude and survival. The broken dinnerware is Johnson Brothers Duchess China introduced in the 1920’s are part of a semi-porcelain line exported out of England to the larger British Empire. This set was bought by my mother at a garage sale. It never found its way out of the box. It was never used by my family. Individually, the dishes are delicate and light in weight but together in an unopened box they weigh about as much as a large crock. The shape of the whiskey jug represents the wine my Hungarian grandparents made in their basement. My father said “it was supposed to be wine but it in all actually, it was more like moonshine.”