When Fiona Bourke's grandmother turned up at the launch of her ceramics show at an exhibition in London to explain her work to the visitors it seemed appropriate.
The Limerick-based artist was the only Irish entrant to be selected for the Ceramic Contemporaries exhibition at the gallery out of a total of 420 applicants. She then went on to win the overall prize, earning her a prestigious showing at the Contemporary Applied Arts gallery in London, Britain's largest contemporary crafts gallery.
Her installation, "Necropolis 1", originally comprised 144 handmade porcelain cups, each on a corrugated porcelain mat and representing memories and images of Irish life. An individual label, with a collage of text and images, gives a clue to the viewer of the piece's meaning.
"Each of them represents a particular time/place recollection. I suppose the work is essentially personal but it would have a resonance for a lot of people. It would be marking the familiar aspects of Irish culture, history, education," she says.
Her 89-year-old grandmother recognised images of parents and sisters in the pieces and became an impromptu interpreter, although the success of the installation was based on the memories and thoughts it provoked in the viewer.
Ms Bourke studied at Limerick School of Art and Design and she returned there to do a masters in 1996, out of which was born "Necropolis 1". She used the concept of the porcelain cup to evoke memories "as if the cup bore a trace of the particular event".
"A lot of them would have been like things you dig out of the garden," she said.
The work has been retained at the gallery, although pieces have been sold. The Brighton and Hove Museum has purchased a part of the installation for their permanent collection. "I am quite interested in the idea that the individual pieces will end up fairly scattered," she said.