Kyla Culbertson ( She/Her )

The process of hand-building with clay gives volume and mass to my thoughts and is an integral part of my creative practice. The imprints left on the surface are the indelible record of this method. Through the affordances of this material, earthenware has an uncomplicated way of encoding the marks of my hands, storing those actions, and recalling them to the viewer on its surface. This specific material investigation assists in the construction of my perceptions of time, narrative, and self. I am ultimately concerned with the exploration of humanistic ideas about existence, agency, relationships, memory, and mortality.

Earthenware is weak and porous, yet strong and tensile as a material. When the iron rich clay reaches a high temperature it begins to warp and the carefully placed lines and shapes begin to move, often altering the original structure with dynamic and precarious results. This process magnifies the places of collision and the idea of absence.  Once it is fired, whether in shards or as a complete object, clay will never cease to be stone- in its permanence. This constant, never-ending state of evolving illustrates that everything is less than perfect mirroring the quality of memories.    

Through fragmented vessel forms, I explore intimate stories dismantled, distorted, and rewritten. I create parables that conjure the individual and collective body, and the means to shift representation and perspective. The form portrays the moment when emotion is being a translated gesture. The human body is a container. It holds precious elements that give life, but it also encloses inner thoughts and emotions that are created by the individual. Skin is the ultimate protector of the body. It shields the inside from harmful diseases and protects from the abrasive elements that are looking to cause harm. Skin is like a window, allowing those that live beyond to simply gaze inside and experience the information that is meant to be private. In moments of embarrassment, anger, and happiness, the skin displays this information for all to see; capturing those fleeting moments of connection and separation that shape our lives.

Employing an aesthetic of accumulation, these forms are more than just aesthetically pleasing objects - they represent the value and judgment of relationships between myself and others. As I construct, I am obsessively trying to control chaos. This chaos is reflective of my everyday thoughts and immanent of everyday repetition and routine. How can I create an interesting, subtle form that is confrontational, but eases conflict? This is a consistent question in my recent idea process. 

Kyla Culbertson is a ceramic artist from Canton, Illinois who is currently residing in Tempe, Arizona. In 2017, she graduated with a BFA in Ceramics from Western Illinois University. In 2019, she was a post-baccalaureate student at the University of Iowa and was awarded Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist. She has exhibited her work regionally and nationally in exhibitions such as Art of Clay National Juried Exhibition, Conroe Art League 4th National International Exhibition, The Akar Yunomi Invitational, and The Almighty Cup. She just recently graduated with an MFA in Ceramics at Arizona State University.