Sculpture “A thread of nostalgia n°2” by Grete McNorton

My work explores the poetics of transformation through the interplay of textiles and porcelain. Trained in sculpture, I initially think in terms of volume, but my practice develops through line, gesture, and the fragility of materials that retain an element of unpredictability. I am drawn to the notion of the trace, whether material or memorial, and to processes that reveal both what disappears and what remains.

My process is cyclical: I sew, I shape, I photograph, I print, I draw. Each gesture nourishes the next and allows the material to evolve toward the form it demands. In my porcelain pieces, the fabric becomes memory: it shapes the volume, then vanishes in the kiln, leaving behind a delicate architecture of absence. What remains is a vestige, a fragile record of something once soft, worn, alive, now transformed.

My practice is rooted in metamorphosis, resilience, imperfection, and the quiet strength of what persists."