Cleo Mussi rescues, re-invents and marshals intricately, precision hand-cut shards of ceramic into a new life, creating contemporary stories with a lightness of touch, layers of reference and dark and humorous twists. Cleo gives a new lease of life to discarded, blemished and forgotten tableware that would otherwise end up in landfill, creating a circular economy in clay. A small mosaic can include pieces from up to fifty plates; each shard is selected, hand-cut, combined and marshalled into place to create unique work.
The recognisable and sentimentally familiar elements inherent in everyday tableware would never sit side-by-side in a museum archive or a collection, but for Mussi they have equal value. Elements from salvaged 18th century Staffordshire, 20th century Wedgwood, and 17th century Meissen, sit alongside 1960’s Woolworths: Homemaker, 21st century Bridgewater, granny flowers and industrial chemistry utensils. There is no hierarchy within the content and the gleaned detail that presents itself and seemingly disparate elements all jostle for position. Pre-loved and discarded becomes re-loved and re-told. Cleo ‘draws’ with ceramic, creating life-size figurative characters exploring our floral landscape, botanical colloquial folklores and connection to the seasons. They also reflect our current economic, environmental and political modern dilemmas – both tongue-in-cheek and deadly serious. The work explores what it is to be human in the 21st century forming interwoven, familiar and otherworldly works.
Recently, Mussi has collaborated with florists and flower farmers, creating captivating, decorative, political and humorous multi-layered, life-size, botanically-influenced installations. Her work is held in private collections locally and internationally and she has created commissions for hospitals, schools, arts centres and public spaces throughout the UK including the BBC Asian Network in Leicester and John Lewis Partnership in Solihull. In 2023, Cleo created a life-size portrait of Greta Thunberg for the Fries International Museum of Ceramics in The Netherlands. In 2022, she was selected as an Award Artist for the British Ceramics Biennial in Stoke-on-Trent.
