The soft curls of Eva Hild’s black and white stoneware sculptures appeal to my penchant for curls and swirls. I have the urge to look deep inside the smooth, sensuous structures and spend some time there.

 

Bilateral

The hand-built sculptures take 4-6 months to create – after they are built Hild sands the surface until she achieves a smooth, thin surface.

 

Liaison

 

“Influence, pressure, strain. These words have been the foundation for my current projects that comprise communicating the theme in large, hand-built clay forms. Delicate continuously flowing entities in thin-built clay. They reflect varying degrees of external and internal pressures, and how, as a consequence, perception of inner and outer space is changed or challenged. My sculptures are bodies, exposed to pressure and movements.”

Spine

“It is a reflection of my inner landscapes of form. Everyday, I experience the tension between presence and absence. The anxiety I feel is both constructive and destructive. My sculptures show me the necessity of opposites; they are paradoxes. Bodies where presence and absence meet. The clay is the prerequisite for creating space, and space is the prerequisite for the form of clay. Empty space as well as clay are my materials.”

Hild in the studio

This video is not in English, but there is enough footage of Hild at work on several pieces that makes the clip quite interesting.

Eva Hild’s website

 

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We’ve all been there at some point in our lives – wondering if there is any real meaning to life. Ceramics artist Els Wenselaers created an unusual bunch of characters in the ‘Sisyphus Work’ collection to explore the question with a hint of humor.

Madame Odeur, ceramics, metal, rubber, glass

As Wenselaers explains, “they perform actions, although they realize that life is without meaning, but they stubbornly refuse to take the escape routes of death or faith. Spraying grass green, air exchange systems which are much too small to have any effect, machines that suck volatile odors, trying with mental control to move a vehicle…. again, and again, and again. Acceptance of the fundamental emptiness is the only thing that’s left.”

Brain Controlled Vehicle, ceramics, metal

The Grass Greener, ceramics, used materials

“My work is characterized by a reflection of contemporary society with a subtle humor and a tendency to idealize.”

Els Wenselaers’ website
Ceramics Now Magazine

In her 25 year dialogue with clay Barbara Glynn Prodaniuk has used wheel thrown and slab construction techniques to build ceramic sculptures that give us a glimpse into the artist’s imagination (Roller Derby Chicks – yes!).

 

Roller Derby Chicks

Quails

Prodaniuk credits an elementary school field trip as the spark that started it all. It was on that field trip that she watched a potter at work and tried to get the potter to let her do it.  Although she was unable to convince the artist to let her give it a try, she promised herself that someday she would find a way. That grade school spark lit a fire in college and she’s been working with clay ever since.  Her story is a good example of why it’s important to expose children to art.

Transformation, side 1

Transformation, side 2

What If?

bgprodaniuk.com