In/Direct Alignments

In/Direct Alignments combines photographs and ceramics to explore the interconnectedness of light & shadow, presence & absence. The abstract works express my concrete experiences as a mother, negotiating connection and acceptance.

In/Direct Alignments combines my photography and ceramic practice to explore the interconnectedness of light and shadow, presence and absence. It uses the language of black and white analog photography with its negative and positive, minimal palette and strong contrast.

The wall works juxtapose a white unglazed ceramic sculpture with a photograph of the sculpture’s shadow. The shadow in the photograph expands the form of the sculpture and holds as much presence as the sculpture itself. In the table works, a black ceramic sculpture sits on top of a photograph positioned into conversation with an image of momentary areas of sunlight from my studio windows; at times it almost feels as if the light is passing through the ceramic onto the paper, creating its own impression.

In structural and visual conversation with photograms, the geometric abstractions of László Moholy-Nagy and the playfulness of Lygia Clark’s Bichos, these abstract works also express my concrete experiences as a mother, satisfying a continuous yearning for balance and connection. As with the object’s relationship to light and shadow, an inseparable connection exists between my son and me. The photographs record a carefully composed, fleeting moment of natural light and shadow. The ceramic sculptures are deliberately placed to align and connect, cementing a peaceful existence and clear dialog that I constantly yearn for.

The inclusion of ceramics into my practice adds a dimensional physicality that I was missing working in photography alone. In relation to the speed and distance of photography, ceramics is a slow and fragile medium, a lesson in patience.

Remodel expresses the realistic - rather than idealistic - side of motherhood. In a set of nine photographs, each photograph records a reconstruction made from all the pieces of a broken ceramic grid. Once documented, the original pieces are piled up and used again, assembled and reassembled, creating structures that are more complex and interesting. I work with what I have, to create not orderly but animated results, that sometimes jut out of the frame and reach outward and onward like my son. The four sculptural works in Remodel include ceramic structures that nod to the shape of a home. As with the reconstructions in the photographs, the lines of the walls don’t always align and there is a visual precariousness to the structures that adds character. In contrast to the structurally rigid, machine fabricated grids of 1960-70s Conceptualism my grids are loose, playful yet emotionally unsettling, evidencing the hand and labor of making. The ceramics are supported by photographs that offer multiple visual experiences of each piece.