Wondergound studios

3D printed ceramic light sculptures inspired my mushroom forms. Designed in Grasshopper—a visual coding language where I use algorithms that simulate natural phenomena like differential growth and fluid dynamics. Objects are then 3D printed in clay using a Potterbot- a 3D printer which is connected to tubes of wet clay. Each printed piece is then fired and glazed using traditional ceramic techniques.

Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass”, the sequel to “Alice in Wonderland” is structured as a chess problem: “Pawn (Alice) to play and win in eleven moves”. The story and the chess board played a large role in my own architecture thesis and chess has been a game that our family enjoys together.

The newest board was designed in Grasshopper using a single Perlin noise algorithm for every piece so that each form has the same “dna” but looks different by adjusting variables. Printing the final form in a glasslike resin with a lower resolution gives the surface jewel-like facets. The board was laser etched and cut using the cross section of the rook, and stands on 3d printed pawns to elevate it off the surface, allowing the light to form shadows through the etching and pieces on the board.

Childhood is associated with all sorts of round and colourful objects— Balloons, hula hoops, bubbles, balls, googly eyes, kiddie pools, bicycles, tricycles and and merry-go-rounds.

We are all naturally sensorial creatures and there is a clear link between our surroundings and mental health.

These works are meant to elicit the type of emotional joy we felt in childhood engaging with a red balloon, a yellow hoola hoop, or a pink bubble. They also refer to the natural wonders that our ancestors experienced every day like the round rising or setting sun and the monthly apparition of a full moon.

Each one is individually constructed from slabs and fired to cone 6 with a matte white glazed exterior with a glossy fun childhood colored glaze glowing from its interior, lit with a concealed LED light in its base.

Color is one of the most salient aesthetics of joy, and yet modern architecture is mostly associated with white and grey. By contrast, if you look at all aspects of childhood— from clothes to candy to toys; to the domain of the feminine— from clothing to jewelry and makeup; never mind realm of mother nature herself— from a beautiful sunset to the blue of the ocean, to the vibrancy of flowers and insects; color is an inherent component of the vitality inherent in life.

In thinking about the natural vibrancy of how our inner joy is affected by our surroundings, I was drawn to a sculpture by mid-century modern ceramicist Andre-Aleth Masson. Its clear architectural lines of 3 overlapping extruded squares perforated by freeform cutouts revealing a bright red interior, piqued my interest in exploring the seductiveness of his composition through the lens of my background in architecture.

Each work is hand built from clay, the interior gets 3 coats of underglaze carefully brushed on through its perforations, it is bisque fired, and then 3 - 6 coats of matte white glaze are hand painted on the exterior surface. It is fired to cone 6, reglazed and refired if necessary (about 50% of the time) then finally fitted with an LED spot light.

These 3d oval ceramic sculptures were inspired after spending a day in the new James Turrell spaces at Mass MoCA. I wanted to think of way to incorporate color and light into my ceramic sculptures. Each piece is glazed with a matte white on the exterior and its interior is colored with a glossy red glaze which is lit with an LED spot light hidden in its base.

There are very few women who were at the forefront of design in the 1920’s. Marianne Brandt was one of the few women in the Bauhaus who was not relegated to its weaving department. She incorporated ideas from the Bauhaus as well as movements such as Constructivism and De Stijl. She studied at the school under Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and succeeded him as the head of the metal department in 1928. She designed her famous teapot in 1924. Where her sets were handmade in silver plate, brass, and ebony for the handles, I have explored making her famous half sphere teapot in different clay bodies fired between cone 6 and cone 10 and with different glazes. Each teapot is made by hand using slab construction.

The etymology of the word “ceramics” comes from the Greek mythological god- Keramos. This work grew out of a desire to map the genesis of Keramos.

He is the son of Ariadne- the goddess of thread, and her uncle Dionysis- the god of wine.

Through Ariadne’s mother, Pasiphaë, she was also the half-sister of the Minotaur. Her father—Minos, the King of Crete put Ariadne in charge of the labyrinth where the Minoataur was held, and where captured virgins were sacrificed to him. It was there that she helped Theseus overcome the Minotaur by giving him a ball of yarn to help find his way out of the labyrinth. Ultimately Thesis abandons her on an island where she is discovered by Dionysis, son of Zeus and the god of wine. Their lineage utimately leads back to the very first mythological god— Chaos.

There are 5 primary emotions in which all of our feelings and emotional states can be categorised into. I started making a series of fictional landscapes, each embodying one of the primary emotions.

The continent of Love is divided into its 3 secdondary emotions— State of Affection, State of Longing and State of Compassion. Within the landscape there are railroads, bridges, towns, mountain ranges and the Great Wall of Loneliness separates the State of Longing from the State of Affection.

The Continent of Fear is divided into its primary states— Fight, Flight and Freeze.