Finding Balance: Running

I work largely but not exclusively through the medium of video art, documentary, and ceramics. Inspired by the natural world and personal experience, I use ceramics to convey my intimate experience within the world, evoking recollections of memory and time.

In my practice I embrace traditional notions of ceramic forms and delight in the inherent material relationship of self and clay. Through the process of hand building techniques, such as coiling and joining, I express an intimate connection with clay, reflecting memory and time. Drawing upon ceramics' deep history, I have created a series of objects that stand to disrupt ceramic’s inherent practicality. This form has no base, it is hollow. When a coil of clay is laid, I embrace gravity’s influence on the form, leaving behind an undulating surface. This uneven surface encourages and captures glaze behaviour. The title of this work is inspired by glaze terminology, provoking a playful intersection between the human body, ceramic form and glaze characteristics. I reference the human body in precarious states such as ‘shivering’ and ‘running’. These human experiences simultaneously reflect glaze terminology, for example ‘shivering’ is a glaze defect, where glaze will flake off the form, due to excessive stress. ‘Running’ occurs when the glaze quickly melts down the pot during firing. This comparison brings to light humanity's inherent obsession with anthropomorphisation of nature and objects. I am deeply connected to ceramics and use this medium as an extension of myself.

‘Finding Balance’ consists of 11 hand-built ceramic sculptures. The glazes you see on these forms have been mixed and developed over a 6-month study, resulting in striking crimson reds and cobalt blues. I enjoy this process thoroughly, particularly experimenting with different variants of colourant, and the infinite amounts of chemical and visual reactions they can produce. This has fostered a fascination with the multitude of colours that can be achieved from a single glaze. The glaze application is carried out using a spray gun, this method allows me to achieve variations of colour depending on the glaze‘s thickness.

Within this process, ‘Finding Balance’ reflects my experience of navigating a recent multiple sclerosis diagnosis. The clay functions as an immediate way of processing this shift. I explore what it means to find balance, not only within the forms and glaze ratios, but within my life and practice. In ‘Finding Balance’, I invite you to reflect on what it means to endure, to connect, and to be alive.