Mariska Koolen (NL) came to the EKWC to search for ways to dig deeper into a secretive world, and how to represent its hidden structures. During her residency, she created reliefs from red-firing clay, which she describes as ritual paintings. She wanted to open up the surface, almost as if she was operating on the object she was working on, exposing repressed color and form. A ritual process bridging the outer world and inner processes. Koolen press-molded the tiles with burlap as reinforcement. She used oxides as underglazes to create a rich depth in color and experimented with contrasting matt and glossy glazes.