I was learning about how word order and word formation processes have changed dramatically over the centuries and millennia. So this was inspired by Indo-European studies, perhaps especially learning about how different Old English syntax was from its modern daughter Englishes. Each row is a generation (not that I did any math). I made pinch pots for every piece, in an effort to reflect how language and how it changes is in the “hands” (brains…) of individuals, they shape it at any synchronic slice and also over diachronic time.  I opted for a Subject-Object-Verb word order, with “big” rich words (rightward/back of table), changing to a Subject-Verb-Object word order with shorter words and more separate morphemes.  There were various marks on the pots, including e.g., IPA symbols sublimated onto the glaze and writing like “change between generations” in silver  and gold over-glazes inside some of the pots (but I can’t find close-up pictures at the moment!).

Credit: Ailís Cournane, 2006, “Syntactic Change”, stoneware