Clarity
solo show, Armstrong's Gallery, CA, USA invitation
March 12 – May 7, 2011
“Julia has been studying and firing her work with Fred Olsen, the renowned wood fire kiln designer, for the past four years as part of her Doctorate degree. She likens her investigation of wood fire porcelain to working in a darkroom. Nema has coined the term ’pyrogram’ as a description for her work. She states “…’pyrograms’ stresses the analogy of wood firing to a photogram, the purest form of photography”, which also results unique works of art. It is an inspired choice to treat the heat of the kiln as a sort of light source, where it is the only tool needed to create images on the vessels in a similar way that photosensitive materials use light to produce photograms. She says, “I use the wood kiln to develop three dimensional pictures on fire sensitive ceramics.” Nema’s constructions capture the images from the environment of the kiln as well as the atmosphere of the sky.”
© photo credits Cynthia Madrigal