Paralleling the direct socio-political language of its companion piece, Eat What’s on Your Plate #2 (2025) expands Alex Hodge’s critical interrogation of power and passive spectator culture. Hand-built using the slab method and measuring 8x8 inches, this ceramic wall plate artwork overlays traditional cobalt blue floral motifs with bold red lettering declaring "Complacency = Compliance". The statement serves as a stark reminder of personal responsibility against fascist regimes, warning against becoming an unwitting cog in a war machine. By harmonizing underglaze painting, precise hand-carving, and transfer techniques reminiscent of Barbara Kruger’s textual interventions, Hodge transforms decorative ceramic heritage into a compelling call to action and political resistance.
(Complacency = Compliance) This plate parallels the format of the Silence = Death plate, to further highlight the responsibility that every single person has to take action against a fascist regime, or risk being a willing part of its war machine.
The Eat What's on Your Plate series is comprised of wall plates that draw on the history of blue and white pottery as symbols of wealth, elitism and consumerism. The plates beckon the viewer with brash red text reminiscent of Barbara Kruger’s work. The title phrase is a play on words in several capacities, directing the audience to deal with what is at hand, while simultaneously admonishing the act of taking from others. They are all hand built using the slab method, and utilize underglaze painting, carving and transfers.
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Ceramic Wall Plate Artwork - Eat What’s on Your Plate #2, 2025. By Alex Hodge
Eat What’s on Your Plate #2, 2025
From Blurb series
Hand-carved ceramic plate
Dimensions: 8 x 8 in.
Hodge studied and graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in Ceramics, with notable exhibitions such as Unsung Muses and Eyes That Bind, graduating summa cum laude and receiving honors such as the Outstanding Undergraduate Award. Here, clay became the conduit that allowed her to speak of her experience and, more importantly, her frustrations. Always curious to acquire more knowledge and skills, she pursued a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Miami. There she obtained the summer scholarship and the William Oberman Award, and graduated summa cum laude. During this time, she moved from expressions of anger to prioritizing love between women, the deep well of internal feminine landscapes and the historical exploration of women in relation to the present through ceramic material. Since then, her works have been exhibited at the Morean Arts Center, Arts Benicia and the Imurj Gallery, among others. She currently resides in rural Georgia, where she transforms her stories into sculptures that reveal what has been historically hidden.
