WINDOW BOX GALLERY
300 NUBS installation by Karen Grosman
Public Reception: September 15, 8:00 – 10:00 pm
The ceramics are a combination of the beautiful and the ugly. I am interested in combining highly decorated objects with abject elements. Glossy pieces, with bone like bisque details. They explore ideas of superficiality, hidden meanings, the façade and the abject.
The pieces question how, within society, the ugly can be hidden by beautiful glossy imagery, propaganda, parades, children’s books and other methods of brainwashing or influencing, methods which have been used throughout history. I am particularly fascinated by the children’s books written during World War 2 in Germany.
The Rebirth Installations are meant to be symbols of hope that whatever form of oppression a society, culture, individual or nationality is going through they can survive and strive.
The ceramic balls, cones and drops are aesthetic studies, exploring how the shape can aesthetically change within the confines of a multiple. The use of the window spaces also bring up questions of the façade and the shop window.
The clay pieces are earthenware, either fired at cone 05 bisque or fired to cone 6 ceramic. With a combination of under glaze and glaze, I am interested in contrasting materials, matte to glossy surfaces, and bisque to ceramic. White and Black clay is used in combination and individually. All the pieces are hand built and painted.