Exhibition dates: Fri 18 Sep – Sat 10 Oct
Open Tuesday to Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 11am–3pm, free entry

Jennifer Ayton’s exhibition Tenderness explores the intimacy between maternal and paternal bodies (mothers/partners) and their children. Her ceramic sculptures are inspired by empirical data gathered as part of two University of Tasmania research projects in 2015 and 2019, which explored parental narratives about feeding young children.

Jennifer’s work represents the silent spaces in these narratives — the tenderness encountered between bodies. The work plays on the ‘everydayness’ of familial lives, while also representing the invisible vulnerability of intimate acts such as breastfeeding.

Clay is both vulnerable and strong. Hand moulding and wrapping the works around the artist’s body has allowed Jennifer to physically connect with the data and to embody the ache of intimacy encountered in the narratives.

The work sits silently with dignity, filling the space with purpose. The sculptures act as physical evidence — recognising that everyday acts such as using our bodies to feed our young, is more than just nutrition.

The sculptures are objects of tenderness, offering a mechanism to bond and generate intimacy and trust. The work invites the viewer to acknowledge the spaces between — to feel the power of tenderness as the invisible thread connecting us with our own vulnerability and everyday acts of feeding.

Jennifer Ayton’s exhibition is supported by the University of Tasmania

Image: Jennifer Ayton