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Animate Conduits

This series was created as part of a self-directed study in the final year of my undergraduate degree at Vancouver Island University. At the time, I was contemplating clay memory; a term which refers to how, while drying, clay particles have a tendency to reassume any previous shape that was stressed into the clay during the forming process. I liked the idea that the clay I was working with was a sort of living thing that could move beyond my manipulations. At the same time I was thinking about the role of vessels, and how much thought goes into how they are designed based on what they are intended to hold. In the most rudimentary sense, vessels are meant to contain energy, whether it is a mug of morning coffee meant literally to wake you up, or a bowl full of food to be metabolized into fuel for your body. In this sense, I began to see a vessel as something much like an electrical cable, a path or passage for energy to move through.
Animate Conduits is a series that explores both the ‘aliveness’ of clay, and how energy can be contained within it and move through it, much like a body.

Ceramic, 2022, 32cm, 28cm tall.

Ceramic, 2022, 26cm tall.

Ceramic, 2022, 34cm, 32cm tall.

Ceramic, 2022, 50cm, 68cm tall.

Selena Unger

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