Research Catalogue

This exposition introduces an exploration of ceramic material from the perspective of an artist-researcher. The ceramic material is explored through aesthetics and making. In this exposition the material connection is understood as a broad term introducing the idea of different levels of involvement with the material. The material connections are reflected from two different perspectives, giving a more holistic idea of what influences the act of making and perception. In this exposition, I explore the material connections mainly from the subjective perspective of a ceramic practitioner and partly from the perspective of the viewers who have no prior experience of the processes of making. Together with the written content, I show different works e.g. videos and a sound file that reveal parts of the processes in ceramic practice. The video and sound works are discussed here as process aesthetics, exposing the experiences, that have aesthetic quality, in the context of making. Through these examples I discuss different levels of engagement with the material and its processes. The aim is to open the material connections in a different light describing the idea of diverse levels of engagement in the ceramic practice.

The goal of this artistic exploration was not to find the one ‘true’ identity but to understand and cope with the transformation between different roles that challenge the perception of oneself. Who / what exists in between the roles? Instead of focusing on human subjects, I have used a city as an example for the exploration. The city of Rovaniemi works as the basis of the exploration where different ‘roles’ can be understood. In order to understand the identities of the city, I first mapped the different roles with informal questionnaires and focused on places that were left in between. The exploration aims to understand what emerges through a compilation of views that focus on something ‘in between’. The aim was to collect video clips that show the gaps and the places in between the well-known and recognizable locations. The interest of this exploration was to understand what can be revealed through focusing on the unnoticed or disregarded.

This exposition focuses on the exploration and development of Subtle Ground, a method that directs attention during and through making with clay, in the context of creative practices in ceramics. The method takes a non-conventional approach to making; it focuses on being with the material instead of pursuing a conclusion in the creative process. The method directs the practitioner to follow aesthetic qualities in making understood from a pragmatist view on having an experience. In this exposition, the focus is on the author's collaborative work that has shaped the Subtle Ground method, particularly the workshop ‘Sensorial Ground’. In Subtle Ground, the idea of dwelling is emphasized offering the specific approach to making. The method consists of a series of exercises that direct attention towards subtle sense perception within the body. Through working with the Subtle Ground method, we suggest that it is possible to begin to understand the embodied dimension and how it influences creative practice. The Subtle Ground method has been built on the clay’s supportive qualities, bringing together sense perception and physicality, thus understanding the practice’s aesthetic qualities and connections to meditation.

This exposition introduces the Lectio presented by Priska Falin at Aalto University on 21.10.2022 at the beginning of her public defence, where she defended her doctoral thesis; Relating to Clay: Tuning in to the Workings of the Aesthetic Dimension in Ceramic Practice. Lectio is based on the doctoral dissertation and can be found here: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/117020

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The video is part of artistic research that explores a dialogue between human, non-human, and forces of the land in Utsjoki, Finland. In this artistic research, walking is used as a method to connect with the environment. During the walks, small amounts of soil – sand, stones, and clay – is gathered and processed further in a studio. Some soil is transformed to slips and used when painting hand-built vases made from the gathered clay. The fired vases are placed temporarily in local rivers. The result is a series of three vase experiments done in a dialogue between human, soil, water, and the forces of the land. The video presents the third vase experiment, where the vase is built from the local clay. The motifs of the painting are the nationally endangered animals: arctic fox, fell owl and glacial salmon. In the River Teno catchment, small juvenile salmon often spend some of their first years of life in tiny tributaries, which they enter from their birth place, the spawning areas in the main stem of the river. One of these nursery streams being Geassemahjohka. The vase is positioned in Geassemahjohka, which is running to the main stem of the River Teno some 70 km upstream from the estuary. Via the experiment we speculate: can act of crafting vase be conceived as act of caring, the vase being thus a symbolic shelter for the salmon?