Exhibition Details

'Office Culture: Bodies of Work / Bodies of Thought' explores the cultural significance of offices, questioning their place in our collective imagination as settings for contemporary psychodrama, triumphs, tribulations, desires, and failures. It contrasts workspaces—whether open plan or cubicle-based—as public iterations of the office with psychiatrists' offices as private spaces centred on introspection and vulnerability. This surreal attempt to merge these extremes highlights the gap between the personal and professional.
The exhibition poses a key question: how do our thoughts shape interior spaces and built environments, and how do they, in turn, shape our thoughts? Freud's office, a historically significant room filled with personal artefacts, exemplifies how human presence imbues interiors with meaning. Ceramics follow a similar trajectory, evolving from functional objects to ritual vessels imbued with significance by human hands.
The works on view, including furniture, functional wares, mixed media works, antique rugs, and sculptures, exemplify this transformation. Mayer's functional ceramics, whimsical tools for office supplies, blend work and art, while her furniture evokes relaxation. Her practice in sculpture, video, and performance explores how digital interactions shape our lives, bodies, and identities, subverting capital-driven technological innovation.
The exhibition features post-war German ceramics by London Group members, including Beate Kuhn, alongside contemporary works by Aneta Regel, Gareth Mason, Nick Weddell, Anne Marie Laureys, Morten Løbner Espersen, Kim Simonsson, Chase Travaille, and Jillian Mayer. While contemporary pieces display exuberance, older works reflect Cold War-era restraint.
USM's Desk and Mayer’s seating create a scene inviting presence and interaction, with shelves and desks encouraging exploration. Mayer's glass works, alongside her mixed media pieces, hover like thoughts in progress. The twenty-first-century ceramic sculptures transform functional media into pure expression, relating to the human body with features like lips, feet, shoulders, and necks.
Sculpture and modular furniture demonstrate how repetition and refinement yield beauty. The blend of hyper-functionality and whimsical imagination in 'Office Culture: Bodies of Work / Bodies of Thought' reiterates the central inquiry: how do our thoughts shape interior spaces and built environments, and how do they, in turn, shape our thoughts? This exploration moves us from reality to possibility, embracing the unexpected.