Page History

Sebastian Durham

Art

objects no. 2, 11, 7, 10, 3, 14, 20

porcelain clay, stoneware clay, stoneware glaze, plaster, cactus spine, steel wire, found metal objects and wood offcuts

This work speaks to ideas of form, deconstruction and reconstruction, assemblage, decay and erosion (burial and breaking, potential for breaking- delicacy), silhouette, lightness (physical and visual), decoration- finding new ways of decoration through denying function, honesty of material and honesty of process, serendipity, self-reference, scale- intimate and cosmic, and balance. Thinking about ceramic processes- and creative processes on both a personal and larger scale- trying to connect the artwork to its space of creation, and history of creation. Processes of reduction, refinement, addition (assembly), heat and drying, cycles, repeated movements, material limits, accident and spontaneous outcomes, erosion. Using porcelain and stoneware clay, and plaster- materials that start soft and through multiple treatments end up brittle, but equally fragile and susceptible to change. Documenting the process visually and through texture- traces of hands and fingerprints, sanding process rendered in charcoal. An attempt to continue conversations with my grandfather through our shared artistic practices and interests- transgressing life and time to learn from him. Thinking about mourning and reflection- personal and collective histories, how collective grief collides with intimate, individual memory. Reinterpreting and rethinking traditions- traditions of mourning, gestures to the urn with a new sense of life and movement. The presence of white as a memorial force. Rethinking traditional modes of decoration- both refuting (through texture and blankness) and leaving space for these traditions, through inverted forms (that deny traditionally sanctioned beauty).