History painting pots - 2013 - 14
Ararat to Albania
‘Ararat to Albania’ honours the lives of three British women: Dr. Elise Maud Inglis, (1864-1917,) Mrs Mabel St. Clair Stobart, (1864-1952,) and Sergeant Major Flora Sandes, (1856-1956,) all of whom worked with the Scottish Women’s Hospitals, founded by Dr. Inglis, in 2014, on the Balkan Front. Mabel Sinclair led a bullock train from Bulgaria through Turkey to Serbia bring vital supplies to the hospitals. Major Sandes joined the Great Serbian Retreat of 1915-16 and fought on the allied side with the Serbian army – winning the highest military honour for bravery under fire. The retreat of 355,000 men, women, and children, with their livestock, crossed the mountains to the Albanian coast with the loss of 200,000 lives. The survivors eventually reached safety in Salonika by 1916.
Remembering Nelson Mandela, 2016
Nelson Mandela, (1918-2013,) was a giant of the Twentieth Century: a resistance leader, a national leader and a world leader. Mvezo, his birth place, is shown with the road to Johannesburg where he studied law. We see him there, as the student, the leader in national dress, and the freedom fighter burning his pass book. He pays a short visit to Britain while on the run and the prison on Robyn Island is shown at the base of the pot. His release and the election that made him the President didn’t end his fierce demand for justice that prompted that furious outburst in Parliament where he rails against corruption. The colourful ribbons twisting around the pot are an aerial view of the people queuing to vote.
