JENNIFER PRICHARD

Artist Statement

A sculptor and an installation artist, I create site-specific installations comprised of thousands of ceramic forms that are installed so that they appear to grow out of walls, ceilings and other architectural elements. The installations transform the sites where they are installed into alternate living environments that conjure those found in nature – barnacle colonies, mushroom groves, wildflower clusters. The organic quality of the installations is heightened by the fluidity of the individual forms and their interaction with the structural features of the site.

The forms themselves are riffs on the stolid, utilitarian forms of traditional ceramics and the processes used to create them. Instead of seeking to attain the controlled “perfection” of ceramic vessels, I use the spinning force of the potter's wheel to create distorted, flowing forms; I pull thrown forms off the hump of clay to expose gashes; I pound clay paper-thin so that it warps in the kiln. In so doing, I seek to imbue the fired forms with the suppleness and immediacy of wet clay, and, through the conglomeration of those forms, to create another world.