Fellowships 2023

My work is informed by ideas of sameness, polarity, and connection. I explore both formal, and conceptual correlations through the shifting interplay of ceramic form, appendage and surface. I work in series to examine the relationships between biomorphic form, human bodies and microscopic life. The physicality of form, and the ways in which objects occupy and conform to space, gravity and other objects, informs both my process and conceptual strategies. Brightly colored, curvilinear forms are assembled from elemental shapes, creating both tension and dialog between relational elements. The works aim to evoke a sense of the familiar and the absurd as they queer the formalist art object. I am interested in the diversity of shape and configurations found in interdependent forms and systems and the altering affect these have on one another. My most recent work is specifically informed by my observations and analysis of formal, spatial, and symbiotic relationships between microscopic organisms and processes found in the soil food web. I aim to make these connections, which are usually invisible, and literally under our feet, visible.

carolineearley.com

2021