Claudette Forbes
Large Illustrated Zippered Cow, 2024
Porcelain, Gold Lustre
19 x 13 x 20 cm
7 1/2 x 5 x 7 3/4 in.
7 1/2 x 5 x 7 3/4 in.
Poor Cow The “Poor Cow” Collection presents Claudette Forbes’s playful yet incisive examination of culture, globalisation, and everyday contradiction. The series was inspired by a family trip to Jamaica, where...
Poor Cow
The “Poor Cow” Collection presents Claudette Forbes’s playful yet incisive examination of culture, globalisation, and everyday contradiction. The series was inspired by a family trip to Jamaica, where they came across a solitary cow in a field next to a newly opened McDonald’s. The quiet humour of that scene stayed with her. That gentle, ironic juxtaposition became the seed for this body of work.
Using the bovine motif as her lens, Forbes’s sculptures and milk vessels are adorned with her distinctive blue-and-white illustrations, blending humour, social commentary, and craft tradition.
“Illustrated seated cow” This porcelain cow is part of the ‘Poor Cow’ series. In this piece, the blue-and-white illustrations are carried across the cow’s surface, rendered in the visual language of traditional transferware but grounded in contemporary urban life. The work uses the familiar softness of the animal to hold more complex narratives—balancing humour with critical reflection on the systems that shape our everyday lives.
The “Poor Cow” Collection presents Claudette Forbes’s playful yet incisive examination of culture, globalisation, and everyday contradiction. The series was inspired by a family trip to Jamaica, where they came across a solitary cow in a field next to a newly opened McDonald’s. The quiet humour of that scene stayed with her. That gentle, ironic juxtaposition became the seed for this body of work.
Using the bovine motif as her lens, Forbes’s sculptures and milk vessels are adorned with her distinctive blue-and-white illustrations, blending humour, social commentary, and craft tradition.
“Illustrated seated cow” This porcelain cow is part of the ‘Poor Cow’ series. In this piece, the blue-and-white illustrations are carried across the cow’s surface, rendered in the visual language of traditional transferware but grounded in contemporary urban life. The work uses the familiar softness of the animal to hold more complex narratives—balancing humour with critical reflection on the systems that shape our everyday lives.