Exhibition                                                                                                                                               

Shape of thought will be exhibited in Lawrence Wilson Gallery, in the HERE&NOW14 exhibition

26 July - 27 September 2014

HERE&NOW14 presents an exciting exhibition of contemporary ceramic work from both emerging and established Western Australian artists.

The exhibition encompasses a variety of materials and techniques ranging from fine porcelain forms and rustic stoneware installations to large-scale sculptural work. Artists working in clay, including Greg Crowe, Pippin Drysdale, Sandra Black, Ian Dowling, Graham Hay, Andrew Nicholls, Warrick Palmateer, Bevan Thompson, Andrea Vinkovic and Stephanie Hammill, have been challenged to produce new work, extending their artistic practice by experimenting with both technical and conceptual approaches.

Objects and installation-based work will be complimented by innovative audio-visual projection works by Jacob Ogden Smith and Luke Aleksandrow, exploring themes surrounding ceramic practice.

I hope to see you there.

Lawrence Wilson Gallery is also organizing public programs for HERE&NOW14 with the Campus partner Earth Sciences and asked me to provide samples of clay and glazes for analysis.

This is soo very exciting!!

Shape of Thought
                                                         

It grew a little bit more, but this is as far as I dare to go:

Please excuse "doctored" background of the image; I did not want messy studio backdrop distracting the view.

So instead of a sphere, I will be exhibiting 3 fragments.

The work still fits its original title: The Shape of Thought

Come to think of it, it probably fits it better than the planed sphere. Thoughts evolve, connect, disconnect and reconnect...

This is the artist statement accompanying the work:

I am inspired by fragility, organic beauty and delicate balance of natural environment, interested in exploring personal and archetypal symbolism of visual language, and intrigued by parallels with cultural environment.

I work with clay. I love the feel, the smell, and the idea of using a natural, earthy, ancient material to explore and express thoughts.

Shape of Thought is inspired by microscopic images of pollens, planktons and molecules and geodesic sphere structure popularized by architect, philosopher and futurist Buckminster Fuller.

I am intrigued by the fact that it is also a shape of Clathrin which plays a major role in the formation of neurotransmitters in our brain.

Although, now it is not the shape of Clathrin...

Second  assembly                                                         

As mentioned in the previous post, I have come to terms with the fact that I can't construct a full sphere right now.(yes, I think I will attempt again in the future).

I know that I can assemble 3 clusters together - 2 hexagons and a pentagon.

Already, the shape has the certain appeal and a presence.

It is almost moving, crawling, slithering....

It is curious how ready our brains are to connect the missing dots into a picture, and how quickly our imagination breathes life into inanimate objects. 

I am beginning to think that fragments of the sphere will be just as interesting, if not more, than a full sphere.

Sphere has a certain poise, perfection of shape. It is balanced,  symmetrical,  accomplished....and  static. It is hard to be curious about a sphere.

Fragments, on the other hand, are a story in the making. They can be parts of the bigger objects, growing or decaying. 

Let's see how big can they grow...

A milk crate seems to be perfect height to support the unbalanced piece. 

So far so good...with the small scale paper model next to it for comparison

And here it is:

I'm not sure if you can see it, but the points on the centre right are not touching the ground.

My creature is standing on the tippy toes.

My creature is standing.

This is exciting.

I am going to leave it like that for a few days to see if it develops any problems (fractures?)