Yugen Stonewares
My work often deals with a reformulation of trivial objects from everyday
life, which I give, by a series of operations, transformations, and disconcerting
appearances. It is based on pre-existing forms, such as plastic packaging for
snacks, salads, etc., found in supermarkets. These forms with such singular
structures designed to be rigid with minimal plastic have inspired me to use them
to generate new objects by changing the material that constitutes them. Instead
of transparent plastic, I introduce a heterogeneous material, granular, composite,
reminiscent of oxidized iron or archaeological remains underwater. The plastic
shell is taken as a mold in which I blend material that I prepared by mixing
various clays crushed to different degrees. Two firings and a glaze which solidifies
completes the object, which then takes the strange appearance of a strange piece
that is difficult to date, archaic and futuristic all at once.
As someone who often eats foods that are industrially prefabricated, I
gained time that allowed me to work longer periods. These packages are for me
symptomatic of an era that is in search for speed. Designed and produced most
of the time in China, these packages are circulating the entire planet and are
discarded after use. Molding plastic in these forms creates a problem for drying
the clay, the resulting tension gives rise to surface cracking of the object.
The plastic's transparency is replaced by the opacity of the clay, which changes
the perception of the original form. This ambiguity of temporality, the false
archaeological appearance interests me with its universal and contemporary
resonance. Although everyone has seen this form the final piece is hardly
recognizable, probably because most people pay little attention to the shape of
the packaging.