Forms of Nature Created from Thousands of Ceramic Shards by Zemer Peled

"Zemer Peled's work examines the beauty and brutality of the natural world. Her sculptural language is formed by her surrounding landscapes and nature, engaging with themes of nature and memories, identity and place. Her works are formed of thousand of ceramic shards constructed into large-scale/small-scale sculptures and installations." http://zemerpeled.com/about/

 

After finding this artist i became more and more interested in using the shapes of the marks that i find every single day and transforming their shape to form something more fluid, natural and soft. Transforming a flat mark into something more, giving the mark another meaning and life. The marks i find look abandoned and lonely and i wanted to change that by bringing them together to give them another life through a natural form. First i tried doing that by using paper and making paper sculptures using the outline of the found marks. 

Then i thought of using see-through perspex by laser cutting the shape of the marks out and then heating the plastic to change its form.

The burnt parts on the plastic are from the laser cutter.
 I like little unexpected things like that.

To be honest the process of making this i did not enjoy, i think it was too forced and required a lot of patience which for some reason i did not have, although i like repetition and long processes in my work. This time something didn't feel right to me. Maybe i tried too hard and the work was more forced than produced naturally. After a while i got really frustrated with it and suddenly i wanted to go round some marks that i could find around me. So i did that and sat on the floor of the studio going round paint stains with a white marker. After 10 minutes doing that i realized that in a way the going round the marks with a white pen and working in such a way is therapeutic for me. This spontaneous decision to do that made me feel excited to develop further in this direction. The process of tracing made me feel relaxed and calm. The moment when i realized that the sculpture did not work for me is the moment i realized what really works for me because after the buildup of frustration with the sculptures the true interest came out and i think i need to follow that because it felt right.  

Also it felt performative and natural and not forced at all, i just followed an impulse to do it and did it. After chasing after performance work for a couple of weeks now and thinking really hard about what kind of performance i can do, this came very spontaneous and natural to me. It was like a breath of fresh air because i didn't put any thought into the actions or what i was doing, i just did it and that's it. Most often i like to think and over think a lot and control a lot of things when making art but this time i was happy to let it just happen. 

Now i am going to listen to my spontaneous side when making work and see how far i can push it as i believe this is my unconscious telling me something about me and my work. As the work i produce when i try too hard seems not to work as well because it is more controlled and forced, compared to spontaneous work which happens naturally. I need to listen more to my spontaneous side and see where it leads me.

~Ev