4th December- Large scale Terracotta work

4th December- 

Large scale Terracotta work

Today I started and finished the large scale terracotta piece that I have been planning for the turn the page exhibition. Although I will be entering the work into the exhibition, it has been made as a fully integrated aspect of my practice also. The work is made of natural sediment and will not have any other components. Therefore it is 100% natural and better for the environment than other materials that could be used. Further to this, it is the first work that combines my sculptural movements with my written work. I have written poetry over work before however the scale of this work holds more impact, I feel. This very labour intensive piece of work took a number of hours to produce, I had to work in one timeslot as the clay is air drying. Another aspect aiming to reduce environmental impact. 

I had to edit the poem ruthlessly as there was not as much space as one envisioned. Therefore they letters had to be placed more closely together also. Although the edit removed a large portion of the poem, I feel it has been improved greatly in this final edit. The final rhyme flows more freely and the shorter length adds to the sculptural aspect by not overfilling the  physical space with indentations of letters. I think the pressure of the clay drying and the effort it took to flatten the surface lead me to be a much more efficient editor to my own work. This is something I have always struggled with. Editing my work to remove the unnecessary parts. The pressure from the material helped alleviate this. 

The shape of the clay was left like the purposefully so that the work does not come across as uniform. The very blocked writing already adds a modern edge to the work so I felt the shape needed to seem more natural. This slab of work would be interesting to place in an outside setting, as the curve of the clay could have been formed naturally. Often erosion forms a soft edge, therefore this work may have a questionable time placement. 

The Dull clay is something I wanted to work with, I did not want the work to be elevated to a higher position through visual grandeur. This is something I had found with my other works. The gloss of the other tiles gives them a very luxurious feel. This is not something I wanted for this work as I wanted it to be accessible. This is something I would like to move away from in my work, therefore I have been looking into natural pigment to integrate into the lighter clay also as well as using terracotta.