Galit Golany

I have always drawn with pens and pencils on paper, until I started to also use clay tablets as a medium for drawing. It was a rediscovery of an ancient medium. Clay tablets had been used even before papyrus, and they were essential in the development of the written language, and were in use in several cultures.

    

As a drawing medium the clay opens for me new possibilities. The depth of the tablets enables expression of the strength and pace of the drawing movement, of the tools used and their textures. Instead of drawing with pen on paper, I use branches and stones to inscribe into the clay, to draw material inwards and outwards.

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​The action of drawing into the clay is done when the clay is responsive and easily moulded. The moment of interaction with the clay is then becoming permanent as the clay dries, and more so when it is fired.
   
​Intuitive interaction with the clay and experimentation are the essence of my work. I use the clay as a three-dimensional "canvas". Each "canvas" is a record of the physical movement and interaction with the clay, a record of an exploration of forms and materials. The works reveal the process of their creation, from the marks of my hands, the plants and tools that shaped them, and are evidence to the work of flame in the kiln. 

 

The fire, with its immense energy and high temperature, is not completely predictable, and the works are let to its force as the forces of nature.

   

The clay is used as mud, as the most immediate and primary material. Clay comes from the earth, and the works acquire the quality of geological, archeological or paleontological findings. They are not made to look old. They have the timeless quality of ancient findings, like fossils and rocks, and landscape itself, that clay and the imprints of plants bear.

   

Through a studio-based MFA research (Monash University, Melbourne) I have tested new methods and materials that are not normally associated with ceramics and clay, but are part of the natural world. Granite, blue stone, scoria, and other stones and other materials, like glass and metals, are embedded to become integral part with the clay. They melt, partly melt or crack, and fuse with the clay. The materials are embedded on the surface or inside the block and find their way out when they melt as if they erupt from the earth.

   

Like landscapes, these works can be percieved either as representation of a large scale view, or a detail of the landscape. This duality of scale gives the works the impression of being even bigger than they are.

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