A Serving of Empathy

This exhibition consists of two bodies of work: Potent Moments (2024) and Fragments of Memory (2022).

Potent Moments (2024) is a collection of sixteen ceramic plates that depict young people, and occasionally their family members, at moments of crisis, transition, and suspense. These scenes, inspired by Watt’s experience as a high school art teacher, are visual narratives created on modified ceramic plates. The paintings began as true stories Watt heard, transformed into mental images over the years, and are now shared for public reading. Each plate presents a scene that invites viewers to empathize with the hidden lives of young people through emotional engagement.

Fragments of Memory (2022) is a suite of ten conjoined ceramic plates depicting Watt’s mother’s journey by train from Pense, SK, to Victoria, BC, in 1950 when she was fifteen. This work reconstructs Watt’s memory of her story. Using conjoined ceramic forms, painted images, and ceramic shards, Watt recreates five scenes from her mother’s journey, reflecting the complex process of remembering and the fragile nature of memory. This suite explores Watt’s mother’s story and the efforts to inhabit and understand her experiences through imaginative means.

Additionally, the exhibition features an interactive work, Carousel of Innocence, set on a low plinth in the centre of the gallery. This piece offers a moment of pleasure and rest amid the tension of the surrounding works, inviting viewers to reflect on their own childhood memories and spin the carousel.

Watt invites you to enjoy these works and consider the intricate relationships between memory, narrative, and empathy.