It's Never Simply Black or White
In 2022, Kathy Irvine and I collaborated again. In this exhibition, we aimed to push the limit of our ceramic works beyond clay and glaze. We incorporated metal, acrylic, terra sigillata, slip design, staging and grouping, and took a big leap to include photography of our finished work as well as some work in progress. It is our hope to have transcended the boundaries of colors to raw materials, functional to sculptural, and 3D to 2D.
In 2022, Kathy Irvine and I collaborated again. In this exhibition, we aimed to push the limit of our ceramic works beyond clay and glaze. We incorporated metal, acrylic, terra sigillata, slip design, staging and grouping, and took a big leap to include photography of our finished work as well as some work in progress. It is our hope to have transcended the boundaries of colors to raw materials, functional to sculptural, and 3D to 2D.
|
|
"Coming Home",
4' x 6',
Ceramic Plates, Wall Installation,
*** SOLD ***
Wall Installations
In 2018, I started to explore the idea of taking a 3D medium (ceramic plates in this case) into a 2D space. The idea originally stemmed from seeing large ceramic platters hung on the wall. When working on my Figure Plate Series, each figure on the plate looks like it's heading somewhere. The plates came out around Mother's day 2018; Missing my grown up girls, as I lined up the plates on my floor, I imagined my girls' coming home to me. So, I thought if you can hang one platter on the wall, how about hanging a set of plates instead. So, the plates evolved into the installation piece "Coming Home" at the October 2018 LCAC Show in Leland, NC, then at Greenhill's 2018 Winter Show in Greensboro, NC. I imagined these plates hung near the dinning table, and when family gathers, each person would choose one from the wall and use it at the table. When finished, they would return to the wall awaiting the next gathering. These plates not only have a utilitarian function, they also function as a display, a wall installation art piece. Since a lot of my ceramic work pushes the boundary of functional forms, I am often asked when I finished a piece, "Well, What do you use it for ?" To that question, I would sometimes answer, "Just to look at."
The function of "Coming Home" the way I see it would be both display and utilitarian.
Kathy Irvine & YiFenn Strickland, "Metamorphosis I", 24" x 24", Oxide & Glazed Ceramic Assembly on Wood Frame,
*** Artist Collection ***
|
One day in 2018, fellow potter Kathy Irvine showed me a wiggle wire clay cutter that some potters use to cut free thrown cylinders from the bat. I discovered that the wiggle wire cut offered me such a unique surface to stretch with. Each piece in this assembly was cut using the wiggle wire. I cut out random size pieces of clay then tossed each on a non-porous surface. The direction of each toss determined how the cut texture was stretched to create unique movements. Pieces with the most interesting texture movements were kept as they were to dry, while the others were turned into bottle forms by Kathy in the most intuitive and spontaneous manner. Oxide wash was chosen to finish the pieces in order to accentuate the textured surfaces; Only the inside of the bottles were glazed. Together with Kathy, who master minded the composition, "Metamorphosis I", our first collaborative piece was born.
|
|
Kathy and I had so much fun with "Metamorphosis I", we collaborated once more on a larger scale using 50 lbs of clay. This resulted in "Metamorphosis II", our second collaborative piece. The display idea of this piece blurs the line between 2D & 3D. I imagine the pieces starting out on the pedestal and walking their way up the wall.
"Metamorphosis II" along with "Metamorphosis I" were installed for our two person exhibition October 2018 at LCAC in Leland NC. |
 Kathy Irvine & YiFenn Strickland, "Metamorphosis II", 4' x 10', Glazed Ceramic Assembly on Wood Frame & 3D Pedestal
*** Artist Collection ***
|