Art
Craft
#art history
#ceramics
#Clara Holt
#clay
#mythology
Terracotta Blues’ collection wheel thrown by Chiara Zoppei. All photographs © Clara Holt, shared with permission
Drawing on the lengthy historical past of Mediterranean ceramics, Italian artist Clara Holt covers the surfaces of vessels, tiles, and tablets with playful, colourful narratives. Impressed by the area’s historic ornamental pottery just like the Minoan octopus flask or Greek and Etruscan vase painting, she illustrates references to mythology, nature, customs, and folklore.
As a baby, Holt’s grandparents informed tales of Greek heroes and monsters, and she or he devoured books concerning the historic gods and legends. “Mythology fascinated me as a result of it was like a bridge that would join our current with a dimension distant in time—a time so distant that it might solely be informed with a dose of implausible storytelling,” she says. As she grew older, her pursuits expanded to Nordic lore and the Previous Norse sagas. At this time, she borrows imagery and motifs from the timeless tales, recontextualizing them into mysterious narratives.
Using a conventional Italian pottery ornament method known as sgraffito, which means “scratched,” Holt fastidiously incises shallow cuts out of the graceful floor of a glazed pot, revealing the outlines of figures, animals, crops, and landscapes. In her collection Terracotta Blues, the characters exist inside an undefined story that circle round tall earthenware vases, creating “dreamlike scenes and imaginary characters that go away room for interpretation.”
Along with pots and vases, Holt makes two-dimensional ceramic tiles and panels, and she or he is at the moment getting ready a brand new collection for an exhibition in Iceland in June. Discover extra work on her website the place she additionally has items obtainable her in her shop, and comply with updates on Instagram.
Slip casted by Jacopo Lupi
#art history
#ceramics
#Clara Holt
#clay
#mythology
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