Adornment of Aggressive Purpose is the final project in a series of short-run exhibitions in Objectspace’s foyer. Three ceramics practitioners have been invited to show recent work over this season, offering an insight into diverse ceramics practices in Aotearoa. 

Olivia Asher's Adornment of Aggressive Purpose comprises ceramic wall structures inspired by wrought iron window grilles and domestic architectural ornamentation.

Historically, grilles function as structures of protection, surveillance, and class signalling, guarding domestic interiors while disguising aggression through ornament. Translating these forms into uku introduces fragility to the objects typically associated with permanence and security.

Incorporating motifs from kowhaiwhai and koru forms, Asher’s ceramic sculptures interrupt colonial architectural language through gestures of movement, continuity, and embodied ornamentation. The works consider how domestic structures regulate intimacy, visibility and protection, positioning architecture not only as physical space, but as emotional and psychological form.

—

Olivia Asher (Ngāti Tūwharetoa) is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based multidisciplinary artist and writer. Her practice explores intimacy, domestic space, containment and emotional experience through materially grounded forms. Working intuitively with materials, she approaches making as both tactile process and relational language, considering how objects can hold memory, feeling, and atmosphere. Asher holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Te Waka Tūhura Elam School of Fine Arts and Design (2023). Recent exhibitions include Crushing (Kaukau at Underlena, 2025), Sunkissed (Moana Fresh, 2025) and Reprise (Peep the Window, 2025).