Artist’s Statement
There are inevitable gaps in our understanding of each other. Language is our sometimes-successful attempt to bridge that gap. However, since language can’t fully communicate and often confuses, language is, paradoxically, both a connection and a barrier. I make ceramic works that reference functionality, written language, systems, and natural forms. Using coats of glaze, I create layers of writing, spaces, faded words, and patterns. The layering, melting, and decorative arrangements of words render the language illegible or obscured in places. The forms themselves hint at a mysterious hidden volume or reveal layers at their edges.
I feel that humans are sometimes more honest and meaningful when they write because they aren’t physically confronted with the evidence of the other. The pressures to written communication are felt but they are less overt and the sense of intimacy and privacy in writing and reading remains. Written language is somewhat insidious in that it seemingly speaks only to you.
I want the texts to have layers, both literally and figuratively, to be discovered over time, imagined in some places, where the meaning has been lost or distorted beyond recognition. Functional objects offer ideal circumstances for the discovery of these layers and secrets. Through use and play, through the simple act of tactile exploration, users know an object over time, comprehending, imagining, uncovering. All art can be known and discovered over time, but functional objects, however fantastically decorative, are mundane; they are just as insidious as the written word in that they are both highly charged and commonplace.
My current project, my thesis show, is informed by an ancient form of time keeping called a water clock, as well as communal tables.
saramourton 