Emerging as mysterious ritual artifacts, Vincent

Dermody’s flower vases for the Normann x Brask Art

Collection are an explosion of color and kitsch. The vases

are variants of his distinguished ‘Memory Jug’ and are

made using the same technique of sculptural collage. By

piling on layers of bright concrete over empty beer bottles

and incorporating all sorts of collected oddities into the

work, Dermody creates surreal scrapbooks of his dreams

and anxieties.

The concept of the Memory Jug is an old folk art form with

diverse cultural and geographic origins. Memory Jugs

memorialized the dead and preserved the mementos of

loved ones. Dermody’s evocative collages pursue a similar

objective, as grave markers dedicated to his history of

mental illness and alcoholism, but with a focus on healing

rather than grieving. By uncorking the jug, the flower

vases for the Normann x Brask Art Collection mark a new

celebratory and more maudlin phase of his work.

“I like to think of them as imposter ceramics, and as objects

imbued with energy to assist physical and mental healing.

As if I am introducing a Trojan horse that ends up in homes

and functions in a new way, aesthetically and functionally.

My favorite objects are things that ride the line between

the poetic and the utilitarian, while having a serious sense

of play. The Normann x Brask Art Collection ingeniously

rides the line between both.” - Vincent Dermody

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