My work is a resonance of barriers – a deliberate and rhythmic echo of boundaries that are physical or invisible, arise abruptly or are established, press with force or in whispers, are felt by many or manifest as a singular event. Traces of these encounters persist as they are inherited through generational lineages as embodied or tacit knowledge. I ask clay questions, observing my body in relation to the world in which it can touch to uncover boundary encounters. Changing my orientation to objects through clay taps into its liberatory potential as a material that centers touch to archive intractions between bodies and borders, confronting these divisions. This is a process of reimagining and reforming, responding to fractures and reconfigurations. My work manifests through iterative and performative material investigations by indexing fingers and tongues – movement and language. I press my fingers into clay, leaving behind imprints that witness wriggling through borders. These imprints are a testament to ways of knowing passed on through the act of firing to make a fossil of the past. The stains of my mattress are maps of closeness archived through the seeping of bodies, porous boundaries, that impact the color of my work. The application of ceramic questions allows for toilet paper to become ceramic tiles, waxed to seal their credibility, challenging what is traditionally considered accessible by reimaging materials and processes, pushing back on the discipline as boundary.
