Pauline Agustoni

Connection can be as simple as pressing a few strings of clay together. At EKWC, Pauline Agustoni used this principle to form a series of intriguing objects that seem to lift themselves up from the ground. Their shape is determined by moulds: heavy vessels that tend towards auton-omy with their lime-white interior and coarse decoration. Agustoni extruded fine, straight-ribbed cords of clay that she draped into the moulds in inverted arches, weaving them in increasingly intricate patterns and connecting the strands at various nodal points with a push of a finger. Once fired, the works stand on their own like domes turned upside down. The construction pro-cess is their first appeal, the chance distortions, a play of light and shadow, intimacy with the material, celadon glaze marking the indentations. And then the works begin to move, they be-come a dance or a gathering of sorts in joyous communion. Agustoni’s vessel-like moulds were coiled upside down — from top to bottom — then flipped upright, finished further and prepared for drying. Going forward, each mould will continue to serve as a reusable tool for the making of further thread-like forms. Multiple 3D-printed extrusion plates were also designed and printed at EKWC, allowing for and creating a variety of shaped threads to drape and pattern within the moulds — and Agustoni spent considerable time researching and experimenting with different celadon and ash-based glazes for reduction firing.