Elevation: the act of taking ordinary, overlooked objects and refining them until they’re treated as precious. Drawing on my personal passion for basketball, like Marcell Duchamp, I reimagine the everyday equipment of the sport, a pair of shoes and a ball, as fine porcelain, transforming disposable, mass-produced objects into that of heirloom status. 

Central to this is the visual language of fine china: the iconic blue and white patterning, fragility and preciousness reserved for what is displayed rather than used, which juxtaposes the aggressive, fast-paced and at times violent nature of basketball. By rendering worn, functional gear in porcelain, I strip away the sweat and commercial noise of the game and ask the viewer to reconsider what deserves to be kept, cherished and passed down. 

My work employs kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with gold, which celebrates fracture rather than concealing it. Influenced by Victor Solomon, who explains that kintsugi holds "a poetic parallel to the sport," I seek to celebrate imperfection, echoing the athlete's own journey. 

Alongside the porcelain shoes, a reconstructed basketball and a mosaic of shattered ceramic fragments are reassembled with gold tracing the seams and the lines of the ball, honouring the elevation of the commonplace; not for basketball alone, but the deeper truth that the objects we live our passions through, like a ball, pair of shoes, or anything else the world overlooks as disposable, quietly carry the weight of who we are, and deserve to be treated as the relics they truly are.