River Memory

Ceramics, crystalline glazes

Continuing my investigation into water, geological memory and the phenomenological experience of material, River Memory explores the moment when a river first freezes, when clear ice forms over the water and the stones beneath remain visible. I was interested in this temporary condition, where movement appears suspended but the landscape beneath the surface can still be seen.

Using carved clay forms and crystalline glazes, I created surfaces that evoke the transparency of ice and the submerged presence of water-worn rocks. The crystalline glazes, with their branching structures and unpredictable patterns, offered a way to suggest the formations and textures of ice through the material transformations of firing.

I imagined each plate as a memory bubble, containing a fragment of the river and the landscape beneath it. Installed across the gallery walls, the plates were arranged to move through the space like water, connecting individual fragments into an imagined river. The installation considers how landscapes might hold traces of their own histories, and how objects can invite us to imagine processes and experiences that extend beyond direct observation.