The Cosmos In The Gourd: House of Goblin

Cob Gallery presents The Cosmos In The Gourd, an exhibition of wall-based ceramic works by House of Goblin.

House of Goblin is the name given to an artist or collective whose work produces jolty, playful objects that can be observed, used, and experienced simultaneously. These ceramic pieces function both as art objects and as everyday homeware: they are made to be beheld as well as held, inviting a momentary pause from the semi-unconscious doxa of tableware. In doing so, they encourage reflection on how human–object relationships frame our world, and how such reflections extend into broader observations of the present amidst daily routines.

A crucial element of House of Goblin’s practice lies in its approach to glazes. Many of the materials used - be it flint, iron oxides, and other mineral deposits are not purchased but personally excavated on “excavation trips” across the UK, gathered from riverbeds, quarries, coastlines, or pockets of geological debris. Each site yields subtly different chemical compositions, and House of Goblin treats these variations as collaborators within the work. The resulting glazes register these geographic shifts: iron-rich soils produce deeper, russet sheens; chalk and flint generate softer, lunar surfaces; trace minerals introduce unexpected blooms or iridescences within the fired clay. This process emphasises the alchemical dimension of ceramics, the transformation of unearthed matter through heat, chance, and intention, and embeds each piece within an extended landscape. The works become vessels carrying geological memory, linking the intimate scale of the home to wider terrains and deep time.

Through the contextual re-placement and re-use of House of Goblin’s previous products - for example, a tray laid horizontally becomes a wall-hung glazed painting; a snail-shell platter doubles as a vertical coat hook, the collective creates simple yet skewed notions of orientation. These shifts mirror our own phenomenological positioning in space: why are certain things the way they are, and what might they reveal about ourselves?

The Cosmos In The Gourd invites a pause to reconsider how familiar objects shape our understanding of the world. By transforming trays, platters, and other domestic items into wall-mounted, light-bearing sculptures, House of Goblin unsettles assumptions of function while creating intimate, miniature worlds. These ceramic sconces, no longer activated by food but by light, echo the flicker of proto-cinema, revealing hidden interiors and expanding the microscopic into the cosmic. Like the painted animals of Lascaux animated by torchlight, these objects use shadow and illumination to suggest shifting narratives.

The term sconce originates from words meaning “to hide,” a notion the works embody. Resembling fossils, shells, or geological remnants, they evoke deep time and the resurfacing of what was once concealed.

Through these wall-based ceramics, The Cosmos In The Gourd explores world-building on a small scale. By reimagining familiar objects and imbuing them with light, glaze, and narrative, the exhibition fosters renewed engagement with the everyday and highlights the imaginative possibilities embedded in the objects around us.