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Handle, Wei Lah Poh

Masters Theses

Handle pays homage to the everyday object. Since Duchamp’s appropriation of the porcelain urinal with his work The Fountain (1917), we have been conceptually challenged to prod the notion of what art can be. While Duchamp denied utility, my process shifts and redefines originally intended utility in the context of enamelware. Through my work, I re-situate these everyday objects made from enameled metal, onto the body as jewelry.

Historically, the objects that comprise enameled domestic kitchenware objects—from pots and pans to spoons and forks to bowls and plates—were common objects, and were handled and utilized everyday. Once massproduced and ubiquitous …