Exhibited artwork Flotsam and Jetsam (Portmanteau) in group exhibition Wordsworth and Basho: Walking Poets, Wordsworth Museum, 2014.

McHugh's work responds to themes of memory and the ephemerality of the human condition in the work of both Basho and Wordsworth. While Basho often revisited ruins and other sites of communal memory in his poetry, Wordsworth was concerned that human endeavour – both monuments and works of literature – were at risk of destruction through catastrophe and would be outlasted by nature. Both poets were also interested in uncovering for posterity the marginalised histories of everyday folk (the flotsam and jetsam) they met on the road.

Similarly, throughout much of his ceramic work, McHugh evokes potentially overlooked narratives and materialises that which otherwise might remain absent. 'Flotsam and Jetsam (Portmanteau)' is an installation piece consisting of hundreds of mainly slipcast and press-moulded ceramic components. By combining durable ceramic elements with an ephemeral, reworkable mode of presentation, the 'scarred' porcelain fragments in the installation occupy an ambivalent position somewhere between absence and presence, manifesting a sense of enduring loss and melancholia. Blades of grass made from soda glass grow through the ceramic assemblage, suggesting the endurance of nature over culture.

The installation title references Wordsworth’s portmanteau suitcase which is on display in Dove Cottage and alludes to Basho’s 'The Records of a Travel-Worn Satchel'. A portmanteau is also a word formed through the combination of two or more other words, resulting in a new meaning. This piece synthesises something of the essence of both poets, repackaging their words into a new object with contemporary resonances. It is inspired by verses 68-92 of Wordsworth's The Ruined Cottage and a haiku written by Basho when he visited the abandoned castle at Hiraizumi in 1689.