Molly Hatch

MOLLY HATCH
Born in Richland Center, Wisconsin, in 1978

Ducere
2022
198 plates in glazed earthenware, underglaze painted decoration, gold

Purchase, Suzanne Caouette Bequest

Molly Hatch uses ceramics as both her source material and primary artistic medium. She extracts motifs from historic ceramics and recontextualizes them by painting them on hand-formed earthenware plates.

Her work Ducere was commissioned by the MMFA for the exhibition Parall(elles): A History of Women in Design (2023). This monumental mosaic is composed of 198 hand-painted plates inspired by an exquisite pseudo-cloisonné enamel vase in the Museum’s collection that was produced by the Minton Manufactory in 1880. Designed by Christopher Dresser (1834-1904), the Moon flask bears a luxurious ornamentation derived from the phoenix and lotus-scroll patterns found on Chinese Ming-period enamelled wares.

Hatch’s reappropriation of Dresser’s design, which itself reproduces earlier Chinese motifs, exemplifies how ornamentation has been continually renegotiated throughout the history of design.