Grandma's Dozen
Unfired white earthenware casting slip
These sculptures are cast from the dog across the room, a prized figurine that Hutsebout inherited from his grandmother. In transforming the single heirloom into a multiple, the work points to the multitude of such objects collected, passed down, and sometimes discarded across generations. And while the “original” (which is of course also one of many) is fired, glazed, and protected under a vitrine, these are left unfired and placed on the floor, rendering them both fragile and vulnerable. In making the sculptures so fragile and potentially temporary —unfired clay can be reconstituted and used again —Hutsebout pushes back against the impulse to hold on to and preserve material things.