Elaine Buss ( She/They )

My forms are distillations of formal qualities from historical utilitarian objects, such as grinding stones, water pipes, and building fragments. Anthropological sources provide a place of empathy with past humans and a way to understand my own humanity more thoroughly. I use the aesthetics of the forms, spaces, materiality, and surfaces as the visual language within my own work. The resulting sculptures are not meant to allude to any specific origin or object, but rather remain anonymous and elusive. I play with the tension between the familiar and unfamiliar; I find mystery to be one of the most compelling emotions, and I try to arrive at a sense instead of a certainty.

My forms are met with an alchemical approach to melting raw ceramics materials together in the kiln, such as glass frits, metallic oxides, and minerals. In these combinations, I achieve haptic qualities that are familiar, yet unplaceable. My fascination with materials and transformative substances reflects a concern for my own materiality. Through my installations and sculptures, I investigate proprioceptive mechanisms: how can interaction, boundaries, or guided movement increase the body’s awareness of its own spatial presence?

Floating between particular objects and ambiguously referential forms, I embrace the non-descript. This otherness feels indiscernible; however, the open space of sensing holds more potential than the concrete boundaries of knowing. Ambiguity brings forward the ontological tension of our own ineffable human existence. It is humbling to be reminded that there is still so much beyond our empirical grasp.

Elaine Buss grew up in the wide-open prairie fields of Lively Grove, Illinois. Her work explores ambiguity and the nondescript, specifically in relation to the sensory, ineffable, and intangible experience of inhabiting a human body. She earned an MFA from Ohio State University (2018) and a BFA from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (2010). Her work has garnered multiple awards including an Inspiration Grant (ArtsKC), Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist Award, The International Award for Visual and Performing Arts (Ohio State), and an ArtistInc Fellowship (Mid-America Arts Alliance). Elaine’s work is held in collections such as Honos Art (Italy), Belger Collection (Missouri), Baggs Library (Ohio), Potamkin Collection (Florida) and C.R.E.T.A.Rome (Italy). Elaine is an Assistant Professor at Kansas City Art Institute in the Foundation Department and a 2022-2024 Visual Arts Resident at Charlotte Street Foundation.