Statement from the Artist
“Although the wind
Blows terribly here
The moonlight also leaks
Between the roof planks
Of this ruined house.”
-Izumi Shikibu
Throughout the first trimester I’ve made….like… hundreds of pinch pots. (basically, if you’ve seen me frantically running from Fisher after D period with clay smudged on my sweater, this is why).
It sounds silly, but working with a shape so basic has grown into, in many ways, my ode to clay and the qualities inherent to the medium I love most. One of those qualities is the fact that ceramics are three- dimensional and designed to be held-- once pieces are fired, viewers can wrap their fingers about the very clay the artist initially molded, creating this sort of cyclical, intimate interaction between viewer and artist unique to clay. Further, my favorite component of ceramics is how wildly unpredictable the glazing process intrinsically is; I’m not allowed any expectation of how these combinations of colored glass will fuse with metals, paper or paint as I throw different groupings into the kiln (and eagerly race back to the studio to examine each batch).
I’ve loved coming to the studio everyday and just getting lost in the somewhat meditative process of pinching clay. I love having no idea where that process will lead. I love, maybe most of all, the way the glass silkily melts through a rigid porcelain exterior, forging this juxtaposition of moonlight leaking through something ruined that the above poem communicates for me.
These pinch pots are vessels-- for what, I’m not quite sure. Yet, being free from the constraints of symmetry of utility and just pinching decorative pieces, just experimenting with glass, has been a really special study of clay for me, and I’m excited to follow wherever this process may lead.
Emily Bleiberg
11/28/2017
11/28/2017
