Kirstin Willders ( She/her )

My work mines the relationship of queerness to systems of structure and ritual practice. Using architectural elements and functional objects as physical surrogates for social structures, binary systems, and normative ideals, I reevaluate and subvert their traditional structures through mx/alignment, re/orientation, and re/claiming. I strive to draw a line between our somatic relationship to spaces and objects and how our orientation within and to them affect perspective, experience, and meaning.

I employ horizontal collaboration with the viewer through sensory experience, interactive work, and pieces that literally gaze back at the viewer. I’m interested in creating a connection with the viewer through visual flagging and semiotic modes of recognition. These methods of communication are deeply rooted in queer lexicon, subtext, and coded language that act both as safeguard and cultural signifier. Important rites of passage and daily rituals in queer life run tandem to those typically associated with Catholicism. In my work I draw attention to those analogous, innately queer practices, including pilgrimage, relic culture, and baptism.

Clay is my primary material, and the wheel my most prized tool. Although rooted in ceramics, my work expands into mixed media. I rarely use glaze or “ceramic” surface finishes. Cold finishing allows me to give a greater specificity to the content of each piece; I am interested in simulacra and façade/masking, but not in trompe l’oeil. By utilizing mixed materials in combination with clay, I have built and continue to expand a material vernacular with particular significance to my work and the themes within it.

Kirstin Willders (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary artist. Her studio practice encompasses ceramics, glass & light, and mixed materials. Kirstin received a BFA in ceramics and a BA in art history from Kent State University in 2012. She went on to earn an MA in Italian Renaissance Art History from Syracuse University’s Graduate Program in Renaissance Art in 2017. In 2020 she graduated from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University with an MFA in ceramic art. Kirstin has completed residencies at C.R.E.T.A. Rome, Italy, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston, TX, and the American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, CA. She is currently a full-time Associated Faculty Lecturer at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH.