These ceramic vessels focus on the parallels between the constructed and natural worlds. As we understand the world through our bodies, we have come to apply anthropomorphic terms to pottery like the foot, belly, shoulder, neck, and lip. Similarly imbued with living processes, pots can have a sense of inhalation or exhalation according to their volumes. In this body of work I looked at architectural forms that emerged out of an early Modernism movement called Googie that seem full of optimism. This bright outlook on the future was often expressed in upsweeping, curvilinear, and geometric shapes imbued with a sense of motion. I have taken these designs as the inspiration for my vessels. Each pot in this series swells with inhalation, the vessel full with a volume of held breath, or deflates with released tension. They express a horizonless instant of possibility within a body. I relate this to an architectural of limitless possibility and an optimistic future.This architectural movement holds a place of strong nostalgia for me. Many important moments in my life have been in motion, mediated by the window of a car, the delightful sweep of a curvilinear roof the defining landmark. In Googie design, the buildings became “signs” for the businesses they housed. To me, they are bookmarks for cherished memories, remnants of a time and place that only exists inside of me.This work is a collaboration between thought and material, as my research is manifested through the custom-formulated clay, glaze, surface, and design. Each vessel begins as a series of autonomous drawings, a cycle of movement that gives birth to three-dimensional form. My vessels are then coil built and surfaced with a technique adopted from the construction industry and honed over the last year. Layers of colourful adornment, unconsciously informed by the worldview of a more optimistic time and place, materially blur the boundary between clay body and glaze surface.
