In March 2023, Caroline staged her first solo exhibition at the OXO Gallery on London’s South Bank. The show was entitled ‘Order through Pattern’.
The exhibition featured a series of collections that explored Caroline’s methodology as a ceramicist and her unique relationship to pattern. It showcased over 35 non-circular ceramic works created over the past 5 years, that have emerged from the confluence of shape, colour, texture and surface. This assembling of handcrafted objects explored the random interactions between these primal elements, when combined with mathematical and scientific pattern work, to achieve an harmonious sense of order.
Using predominately slip cast moulds, Caroline’s multifaceted forms referenced primordial symbols such as scarabs, menhirs and totem poles, each handcrafted.
The works were divided into two gatherings exploring how pattern reacts to shape and scale. The first, ‘Order Through Shape’ highlighted the influence of form on two-dimensional pattern. The second, ‘Order Through Absence’ focused on the role of the negative and its influence on form.
In dialogue with the ceramic works a series of eight drawings were intermittently dispersed throughout the exhibition. A new addition to Caroline’s practice, these preliminary drawings revealled how her ceramic forms are conceived, working across mediums and axes to inform one another.
Caroline Cole said: “This art is not commentary. It does not grow from the human condition. Instead, it is founded on primal elements that will frame our existence for as long as there is light in the universe with which to see: shape, colour and texture.”