Liz Howe

Cage Series (double cage)
porcelain, wire

The reality of impermanence within our lives and surroundings is often overlooked and disregarded in our contemporary culture. Our societal focus on consumption, material comfort and control discounts any value in recognizing the fragility of our individual and interconnected lives. Without such reverence and attention we become splintered, detached and isolated from the reality of natural laws, from connectedness with one another, and from a basic sense of meaning within our lives.

My work explores themes of fragility, temporality, groundlessness, stability and instability. I juxtapose the architectural with the organic, weight with weightlessness and the beautiful with the bland aiming at a peculiar balance similar to that of our modern lives within the natural world. These concepts dictate the materials and methodologies employed.

I explore the qualities of clay and earth through the utilization of conventional methods associated with ceramics (building, firing, glazing, firing), in more unconventional ways (unfired and stabilized) and in juxtaposition with non-ceramic materials.

© Liz Howe