Uriel H. Caspi
Some artists embrace all the different interpretations of their work, some are most happy when people ‘get it’. Uriel Caspi firmly belongs to the latter category. His sculptures can best be seen as formal investigations that move between past, present and future along several lines. Some series take up the visual language of Middle-Eastern archaeological artifacts to project them onto a posthuman era when nature and technology become indistinguishable. Others transform everyday items into bold designs that are yet to arrive. The centuries-old building technique Caspi deploys, jarre-à-la-corde, combines two of the earliest human inventions – rope and ceramics – in a process that makes the construction an explicit part of the final piece. Surface, structure, colour all contribute to the sense that these very tangible objects somehow belong to another reality. At EKWC Caspi press-moulded a series of human-size sculptures that will be installed upright to playfully confront the viewers.
Anina Major
Weaving is a way for Anina Major to relate to the fragmented legacy of the pre-Columbian Bahamas on her own terms. It also connects the artist to her maternal grandmother, who wove mats and baskets to sell in the market. Plaiting strands of clay, Major makes larger strips that she plies into different shapes. This method is quite distinct from the twining technique she discovered on the island where her father was born, weaving coils of clay through a more rigid structure of radial spokes. The techniques essentially represent two complementary principles and the resulting works generate meanings well beyond the first references to functional objects like baskets or cages. At EKWC, Major built several larger pieces. While the physical process of carrying, mixing and extruding huge amounts of clay turned creation into labour, the architectural scale of the sculptures suddenly manifests their relation to the human body.
