I am a ceramicist and historian investigating the influence of developing twentieth-century electric kiln technology in ceramic art processes.

My most recent artwork is a culmination of my experimentation with firing slip fragments and glaze in new ways. Working in collaboration with the electric kiln, the final placement and fusing of each piece happens as it is fired to 1240 degrees. I contrast wheel-thrown pottery alongside assembled forms – both made with the same materials - to show the possibilities of assemblage that the electric kiln executes.

Sound is instrumental for me in unlocking elements of the making and firing processes that are not visually accessible. Soundscapes, made from original field recordings, call for closer attention to the experiences of, and interactions between, the range of materials that converge and commune with each other in making and firing processes: clay bodies, slip, glaze ingredients, and the materials of the kiln itself.

I want to explore a more sustainable and transparent approach to using kiln technology, leaning on my ideas of assemblage and a collaborative approach with the kiln as a site for ‘commoning’ and transformational communion between materials. I seek to situate the kiln in a longer and stranger history rather than just accepting it as springing from the era of late capitalism with its focus on productivity and exploitation of materials.