Emma Clarke

Emma Clarke’s stools and chairs built from slabs of clay are highly personal hybrids of sculpture and furniture reminiscent of airport terminals or waiting rooms. The chairs look vulnerable. In a single poetic gesture the slabs fold and loop to form a back and seat floating above the base. Still, they are meant to sit in: as in all relationships, trust grows when it is tested. Working on the slabs, pounding, evening, finishing them to perfection, Clark built a close relationship with the clay. Its flawless surface became the face we present to the world. The furniture’s open sides reveal the imperfections, finger marks, traces where the edges have been connected. Clarke embraces them. This is life, this is us, with all our quirks and scars. The chairs and stools combine with other materials, like plaster and wax on silk-covered plywood to enhance the furniture’s sensual appeal and emotional intricacy. To arrive at the most optimal clay body for her project/needs — a balance of plasticity and strength — Clarke had to begin her residency with a bit of clay-body research; a bit of trial and error. She eventually struck the balance — working with a mixture of EKWC’s coarsest clay body in combination with extra molochite and flax. Clarke then press-moulded large, even slabs of this clay mixture and, with the help of EKWC advisors and fellow residents, suspended and then draped the slabs into custom-made plywood supports. The slabs were then quickly folded into place with temporary supports between the folds. Every effort was made to ensure an even and gradual drying process so that the chairs did not warp and bend. The pieces were twice-fired and the glaze was (primarily) sprayed. Clarke made time in her residency to experiment with different materials and colour palettes — to think about their individual characteristics and their cohesion as a group of sculptures/functional objects.