Madeleine Child |2

Despite her resolutions not to make impractically large pieces, New Zealand artist Madeleine Child used EKWC’s industrial extruder to create a whole series of ceramic planks easily taller than herself. Leaning upright against the wall they could just be weathered pieces of wood. Striped and patterned in multiple layers of glaze and slip, pierced with countless holes, they mimic the beauty of found materials, carrying the marks of intensive use in a fusion of personal and industrial traces. As such, the planks could stand for life itself, totems, if you like, and then something unexpected happens when they capture the light. Large spaces open up – architectural, cultural, celestial – evoked by Child’s deceivingly simple gestures. Just like the wriggling sculptures that look like fat pieces of comb-binding transformed into exploring caterpillars, like the colourful birds and the popcorn works that dance and jump around, the planks simply celebrate creation.