Elisa Bartels
Elisa Bartels
Elisa Bartels bases in Sydney and her work is centred around pushing the boundaries of public perception on the capabilities of ceramics. Clay is a nuanced material that transcends the domestic environment and confidently straddles the perceived divide between art and design.
What excites her is subverting the perception that ceramics has in the broader community and opening up a dialogue by producing works which are approachable, exciting, fun and sexy.
Feuillemort
2018
Feuillemort (the French word for the colour of a dying leaf). This work is inspired by the transformative power of fire in Australian landscape. How our first nations' people discovered and harnessed the power of fire to regenerate the landscape. We are now more willing to listen to them and learn the nuances of burning our landscape to achieve results which sustain it and us.
Leaves are placed on the object's surface and then the piece is black fired. This is a method where the clay object is placed in a container with combustable matter such as sawdust. It is placed in the kiln and fired. As the material combusts the smoke is impregnated into the clay body. As the object cools the smoke is trapped in the body with the leaves acting as a resist on the matt black surface. The outline of the leaves are a reminder that burning our landscape does not destroy life. Vegetation lies dormant ready for flames and heat to rejuvenate and reincarnate.
