The Conditions for Ornament series dominated Rowe's work from the late 1980s to the late '90s. It is his largest series and the most complex in its points of reference. It is full of dualities and opposites: twisting, tumbling movement, set against stasis and monumentality; precise geometric form dressed in a sensuous surface. Works in the series look both inwards, to themselves and their own conic geometry and identity as containers, and outwards to their relationship with physical space and engagement with the viewer.

This vessel is a development of a silver form, commissioned by The Goldsmiths' Company. Here a massive, partially close, conical form balances precariously on a cuboid base. The whole has been sliced, twisted and left to hang, in unbalanced discomfort.