Kiri Rix is a ceramic artist and sculptor living in Calgary, Alberta. She is a BFA candidate at the Alberta University of the Arts, expected to graduate in 2020. Her work involves the obsessive decoration of porcelain vessel forms, and process based sculptural exploration of ceramic as states of being. Kiri is interested in the embodiment of feeling and memory in clay. Her current work has been focused on the recuperation of failure, using reclaimed clay and vessel shards to build new objects. She questions the permanency of loss and the finality of death through disintegration and resurrection.

ARTIST STATEMENT

In the process of working with clay, I nurture bodily intelligence and intuition as a way to reclaim a sense of self often lost to mental illness and the lingering effects of trauma. Externalizing intensive care and attention to the material serves to ground my psyche, transforming alienation and distress through physical contemplation.

In my functional work, forms display a tension between rigid and fluid forces. Embryonic blob shapes and undulating lines are gently interrupted by angular surfaces. Textured decoration channels imaginary landscapes, spectral phenomena and abstracted patterns, invoking transitory sensations of presence and wonder. In my sculptural work, I use the implicit content and behavior of objects to represent the unrepresentable.

Student Award  May 2019