An Egg, A Seed, A Stone
2020 – 2021
ceramic installation
dimensions variable
commissioned by Auckland Art Fair and supported by The Chartwell Trust
P4
Invested in the transformational processes of ceramics, Becky Richards has conceived her project, An Egg, A Seed, A Stone as a therapeutic experience. Through laborious handmade processes, the artist has spent the past six months creating hundreds of small clay forms that reference stones, eggs and seed pods. These objects have been fired multiple times, in glazed and unglazed varieties; each piece is completed as a unique form.
As part of her project, Richards invites audience members to select an object that resonates with them, and find a way of putting it to use in their everyday life; perhaps as an anxiety pacifier, an incubator of ideas, or an easer of loneliness.
FROM THE ARTIST
“These objects are singular, graspable, and mobile; each one formed between my hands, to fit in the hand of another. Eggs, stones, pods, seeds, created so they may flow out into the world, tumbling through the small, repeating circles and cycles of the everyday. For a hand, for a pocket, to be tucked in a tote bag or slipped under a pillow. Each object may take on a nuanced role, in accordance with the needs of its holder.
They might act as anxiety pacifiers, worry absorbers. Hold the object in one hand, lower your gaze, take three deep breaths, then slowly think through every stressor of that day – imagining as you do so, that each worry is passing through your skin, leaving your body, and storing itself in the held object.
Each form, though one of many, has its own character, its own idiosyncratic body. Coerced into being through careful action, squeezed, palmed, pierced, allowed to sit quietly for many weeks, slowly relinquishing moisture and weight. Baked to a clean, yellow-white heat. Iron spots emerging as dark freckles. Glazes melting, fluxing, settling into cold and shining skins of rippling blues, stippled ochre.
Find one that fits comfortably in your hand. Use it as you see fit.”
Becky Richards will be activating her work on Wednesday 24 February at 1-3pm and 6-8pm; Sunday 28 February at 11am-1pm and 2-4pm.
Image: Becky Richards, An Egg, A Seed, A Stone, 2020-2021, commissioned for the 2021 Projects at Auckland Art Fair, image courtesy of the artist.
