A series of vessels and ritual objects made in search of holding forms for emotional investment – I was looking at ancient moche effigy vessels from Peru. I was interested in the complex entry/exit points for holding directing and releasing the breath and liquids. I was also making clay whistles in animal forms.
The bowl form is a holding space, an ’empty’ pot might breathe. A pot might have a guardian spirit. A pot might play a role in sacred offering. A pot might have breath blown into it to appease the guardian spirit.
At the time I was hearing about an ecological phenomenon that occurs every 50 years in Northern India when the bamboo flowers across a vast expanse of the area all at once, dropping seeds feeding the rat population and creating a “rat flood” – after the bamboo flowers have gone and the seeds are all eaten the rats seek other food sources, bringing famine across the region. At the time the people of Mizoram were anticipating this cycle, they knew the bamboos would bloom and the rat flood and famine would follow but are unable to control it.
julforrester 