This thesis revolves around my work Desirable Objects, an installation in glass and other materials, which deals with objectification based on female and animal trophies. The topics included are those that have been crucial to my working process; craft, post-colonial studies and European hierarchical dualism, where woman and nature are seen as connected, but inferior. My motivation has been to get a better understanding of underlying power structures, and put this knowledge in relation to my own work. This process has led me to make a full body casting of my own body as a method of self-exploitation, in an attempt to expose myself to a similar power perspective. By making the dualistic connection between woman and nature, I am commenting a phenomenon that in my view has resulted in a similar exploitation of both. / Åtråvärda objekt

Theoretically  the  report  revolves  around  the  British  child  psychologist  D.W.  Winnicott  and  his  theory  on  transitional  objects.  He  talks  about  the  comforter  as  an  object  that  serves  as  a  transition  between  the  mother’s  secure  embrace  and  the  sourrounding  world.  The  comforter  functions  as  a  step  towards  buildning  up  the  child’s  own  internal  security.  The  report  also  highlights  partial  reinforcement,  which  is  a  learning  mechanism  that  can  be  very  efficient  to  create  a  dependency  and  maintain  a  destructive  behaviour  for  the  person  being  exposed  to  the  mechanism.  Through  my  ceramic  work  I  have  investigated  the  relationship  between  the  two  theories.  I  ask:  are  the  inherent  feelings  of  safety  and  belonging  things  that  we  are  born  into  or  inherit,  or  are  they  created  later  through  experience  and  cultivation?  If  one  lacks  the  inherent  feeling  of  safety  does  that  cast  them  as  an  easier  target  for  destructive  emotional  dependency?  If  so,  can  a  foundation  of  safety  and  confidence  be  built  up  by  the  work  of  clay,  can  clay  function  as  a  comforter? In  the  report  i  discuss  how,  with  the  help  of  clay,  I  approach  and  explore  these  subjects.  I  go  further  to  illustrate  my  therapeutic  beliefs  on  clay,  and  its  ability  to  build  self  esteem  and  confidence.