Emergence

My new work: Emergence is finished and ready to leave the studio. Today I will show you a few images of the finished work, and later on I will share behind the scenes and work in progress shots. For those interested, the work will be wall mounted. It is 3.3 m wide and 1.7 m tall. It is mostly wheel-thrown and fired to cone 6 in an  electric kiln.

At ClayMake Studio

My work is largely inspired by microscopic images of pollens and planktons, corals and natural structures.

There is such diversity, rhythm, playfulness of form in those tiny objects, but what intrigues me most is the abundance of little individual variations, complexity of the form and their beauty.

To me those forms symbolize life. Universal life.

I play with the idea that natural objects on different scales share the similarities and visual language we intuitively recognize and respond to:  we are made of the same materials and share the same origins and the environment. All living organisms on the planet are intricately connected.  

In this work, I am exploring the transition between order and disorder, process of change and transformation, edge of chaos as a creative force. I am referencing complex adaptive systems – such as ecosystems, societies, and economies – systems that maintain themselves between randomness and consistency where they can somehow use both in order to configure and reconfigure themselves, evolving to become more complex.

“But understanding emergence has always been about giving up control, letting the system govern itself as much as possible, letting it learn from the footprints. We have come far enough in that understanding to build small-scale systems for our entertainment and edification, and to appreciate more thoroughly the emergent behaviour that already exists at every scale of our lived experience.”

Steven Johnson, Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software