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About Emotions of the Inorganic
“What are our emotions?” – a question often asked within scientific communities working within artificial intelligence and neuroscience.
How we decide what we like or dislike, deciding what is beautiful or ugly, has interested ceramic artist Akiko Hirai for many years. Finding biological or chemical reactions, environments and the physicality of objects all to be connected, in this collection she makes associations between physical phenomenons, for example the reactions that happen within her kiln, and her own personal emotional input and output.
Using variations of wood ash and a range of firing cycles to create surface effects on the pieces in this collection, Akiko has harnessed the raw materials and reduction firing process to form unique sculptural pieces in reactive combinations that appear to drip with layers of colour and texture.
Throughout his long career Peter has always sought pathways to the development of new ideas. Often this is a slow process, but sometimes a particular event speeds things along.
Partaking of two residencies in China recently, where Peter worked in porcelain at high temperatures, led him to develop a new body of work, made alongside his existing practice to which Peter is still deeply committed.
This new exhibition represents the outcome of Peter’s working practice.
'This exhibition explores objects that express a quiet equilibrium: fragile, shifting forms that exist in a state of delicate imbalance. Their stillness is easily disturbed, as if the act of holding too tightly might cause something essential to disappear. The works reflect an interest in forms that resist perfection, remaining slightly unresolved, unsettled, and quietly alive.' Akiko Hirai