Standing out as the largest and most commanding piece in the series, Eat What’s on Your Plate #3 (2025) by Alex Hodge reframes a ubiquitous political slogan into a celebration of diversity and community strength. Hand-built using the slab method into an expressive 14x8.5-inch oval platter, this ceramic wall platter artwork overlays intricate cobalt blue lace patterns with bold red lettering declaring "Immigrants Make America Great!". By intentionally dropping the final word "Again" from the Reagan-era phrase, the work rejects nostalgic political rhetoric while honoring immigrant communities as the true foundational power of the country. Combining underglaze painting, precise hand-carving, and transfer techniques influenced by Barbara Kruger’s textual art, Hodge transforms classic decorative tableware into an authoritative visual statement of social justice and historical critique.
(Immigrants Make America Great!) This piece remakes the slogan, Make America Great Again, which was also a product of the Reagan era. Many scholars assert that it has origins as a dog whistle to the Ku Klux Klan, along with other phrases such as “America First.” This platter, being the largest of all, acknowledges and ingratiates itself with the true backbone of America, immigrant communities. In dropping the last word, it also asserts that there is no backward in which this country was better.
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 Platter Artwork - Eat What’s on Your Plate #3, 2025. By Alex Hodge
Eat What’s on Your Plate #3, 2025
From Blurb series
Hand-carved ceramic plate
Dimensions: 14 x 8.5 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.
