Marice Cumber: Disco Be Mine | 12 October - 6 December 2023

Celebrated artist Marice Cumber showcases her latest confessional ceramics under the title ‘Disco Be Mine’ for her first solo show at Georgia Stoneman’s new gallery, The Viewing Room, accompanied by a collection of paintings by Henrietta Dubrey.

Marice Cumber’s autobiographical vessels are dedicated to the essence of time; the nostalgia of youth in conjunction with the reality of ageing in a society which aspires to be ageless. “Like becoming part of the ‘mum club’, or the ‘dead dad club’, being older is something similar – nobody prepares you for it”.

Despite feeling youthful on the theoretical dance floor she now consciously carries a past. “That feeling, I want it all again. It’s a love letter to a disco”. Her title piece The Big Bucket of Disco Fever reads, ‘Disco be mine forever’ and ‘I just wanted to dance and feel free again’. The work acts as a reflection on the past but also as a symbol of her newfound sense of freedom and acceptance.

Marice Cumber's solo exhibition ‘Disco Be Mine’ will be held at The Viewing Room, our new gallery space located at 13 Fore Street, Castle Cary, Somerset, from the 12 October - 25 November 2023 and will run online for the same period (online exhibition extended until 6 December).

Marice Cumber

The Big Bucket of Disco Fever, 2023

Marice returned to ceramics five years ago off the back of a mental health collapse. A combination of work burnout plus the stress and strictures of family life stripped her of any creative outlet. Her initial output was deeply cathartic, she relayed the emotions documented in her journals from darker days, carving the bold statements on oversized, intentionally domestic shaped vessels, like confessional adverts. “They are no small trinkets!” she states.

Marice considers her creative practice a privilege and a prime opportunity to respond to life's pushes and pulls. “My work is about acceptance, self value, recognition, understanding myself, forgiving myself, and respecting myself”. Her more recent work reflects this new found gratitude, resilience and hope; seen in The Tall Vessel of My Independence, ‘My dependence was my downfall (then). I am a coward no more, I am strong’.

Marice Cumber

The Tall Vessel of Acceptance, 2023

Marice balances her time equally with her charity Accumulate, The Art School for the Homeless which she set up in 2013. Her own creative revival was sparked by an old friend confronting her at an exhibition organised by Accumulate, “this is all very well Marice, but when are you going to get back to your ceramics”. Like a dagger to her heart, she realised she was substituting her own needs. The next day she rented a shared studio and bought her first clay, “like a barren well filling up with water - a feeling of absolute bliss, being back to making again”.

Cumber gets huge joy from the physicality of playing with clay, as well as revelling in the daunting nature of the process. She likens the lengthy procedure to life’s long journey, where you have to trust, adapt to unpredictability, take risks and learn to accept failures. Despite still facing struggles, she feels happy to have both creative avenues, which is reflected in The Beaker of Silence, ‘I reached a place of silence. My soul became nourished (finally)’.

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Marice Cumber: Disco Be Mine: A Collection of Ceramics with Paintings by Henrietta Dubrey

Marice Cumber

Marice Cumber

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