Exhibition
Come As You Are
30 Apr-20 Jul 2025
Aspex Portsmouth
Portsmouth PO1 3BF
Come As You Are, 2025, Glazed stoneware, oxides. Credit: Aspex Portsmouth
Overview
Come As You Are presents a vibrant collection of ceramics, sculpture, zines, and prints from multimedia fine artist Rachael House. Through her diverse practice, which encompasses drawing and performance, House thoughtfully explores themes of gender and queerness with a personal and playful lens. The works create a vital space for reflection, empowerment, and inclusivity, echoing the crucial act of making visible narratives that are often marginalised. At a time when LGBTQIA+ communities face rising hostility, these pieces stand as urgent, defiant, and compassionate acts of presence.
Engaging with interconnected themes of collective joy, the complexities of aging, mental health narratives, and feminist perspectives, House’s ceramics and sculptural works often blend intricate patterns, humor, and serious messages, rendering them both decorative and deeply accessible, inviting viewers to find personal meaning and connection.
The platters and plates on display boldly re-imagine feminist and LGBTQIA+ potentials, drawing inspiration from Simone de Beauvoir’s assertion that “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman” and the queer reframing of a beloved line from The Railway Children. The Leather Flappers – sculptural bat-winged fists, stand as potent symbols of solidarity and the boundless nature of queerness, echoing the sentiment that “nothing is as queer as nature.” At the heart of the exhibition resides the tiled panel You Are Safe Here, functioning as both a heartfelt intention and a protective spell, affirming safety, belonging, and profound inclusivity – a powerful declaration for both the present and those yet to come.