Artist Statement
I have discovered Ceramics after years of working as a graphic designer for the fashion industry. Gradually, this medium, and the potter's wheel in particular, have become my main tool of self-expression, and although I am invested in teaching pottery, and focus my practice on ceramic, I never saw myself as a potter per se, but more as a practitioner all round.
In my ceramic works, I examine the beauty of and take inspiration from the worlds of botanic and nature. My sculptural language is inspired by the structure and morphology of plants. The joints that connect the different elements of the plant create textures, structure, internal logic and the interaction between skin and content, which I find fascinating and give me plenty of room for experimentation.
The objects that I create, open a dialogue between abstract and concrete, between the uncanny and hybrid to the familiar and identified. My objects quote elements and features from fields beyond those associated usually with ceramics, and this adds to their magical effect and visual impact.
For me, the ability to shape an amorphous piece of clay into a concrete object, is fascinating and empowering, not only on the functional level of making, but through the spectacle of a potter at work- as a creator. I consider the wheel-throwing act more as a mesmerizing performance, and a way of reflecting about making an object that has volume, rather than just a mean to an end.
That thought, led me in recent years to create video-art, and combine its projection with ceramic objects I make. Filming videos allows me to create an imaginary and alternative reality that does not necessarily subject to the limitation of matter, and therefore enables me to create a ceramic work , which is not a fire-able object, and to engage in a contemporary dialogue with the wheel throwing tradition, through an experimental point of view.
Photo: Gangi N all that jazz