Apokathistemi (Reconstitute)
Artist Statement
Clay has a peculiar story to divulge to us: Created through painstakingly slow erosion of granite rock, it physically breaks off in microscopic layers and becomes permanently changed, stripped of the properties that once donned it with absolute strength as stone. Through the union of water particles, clay exchanges those once powerful properties when it was stone for those of meekness and submission as a plastic material which become whatever the hands of a creator destine it to be. It retains an absolutely perfect memory of every force applied to it, and the plasticity of wet clay means it is receptive to continual change similar to the constant flux of our brain cells through neuroplasticity. Nonetheless this meek behavior remains only as long as the clay contains water.
Water is the life-giving breath that gives clay its delicate existence. As clay dries and eventually exhales the last drop, the clay is no longer pliable, becoming stubborn and fragile as if it has experienced death. In this video work, the hardened heart experiences a baptismal-like soaking in water which brings it from death as a dried out substance back to life with renewed plasticity as it disintegrates, repurposing it as an amorphous material to once again submit to the hands of a creator. This much quicker erosion of reconstitution is paradoxically the process of being reborn despite its apparent decay.
Clay has a peculiar story to divulge to us: Created through painstakingly slow erosion of granite rock, it physically breaks off in microscopic layers and becomes permanently changed, stripped of the properties that once donned it with absolute strength as stone. Through the union of water particles, clay exchanges those once powerful properties when it was stone for those of meekness and submission as a plastic material which become whatever the hands of a creator destine it to be. It retains an absolutely perfect memory of every force applied to it, and the plasticity of wet clay means it is receptive to continual change similar to the constant flux of our brain cells through neuroplasticity. Nonetheless this meek behavior remains only as long as the clay contains water.
Water is the life-giving breath that gives clay its delicate existence. As clay dries and eventually exhales the last drop, the clay is no longer pliable, becoming stubborn and fragile as if it has experienced death. In this video work, the hardened heart experiences a baptismal-like soaking in water which brings it from death as a dried out substance back to life with renewed plasticity as it disintegrates, repurposing it as an amorphous material to once again submit to the hands of a creator. This much quicker erosion of reconstitution is paradoxically the process of being reborn despite its apparent decay.