Galit Golany

I use clay as a drawing medium. Using 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.

    

The works record the physical movement and interaction with the clay, and reveal the process of their creation, from the marks of my hands, the plants and tools that shaped them, and are evidence of the work of flame in the kiln.

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​The works are let to the force of the fire in the kiln, as to 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, archaeological, or paleontological findings. They have the timeless quality of ancient findings, like fossils and rocks.

 

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 an integral part of 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.

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Like landscapes, these works can be perceived either as a 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.​