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DEC24 SUB- SUPER- Kohl Tyler
Quality presents ‘sub- super-’ by artist Kohl Tyler, in collaboration with MARS Gallery, Naarm Melbourne.
Gallery hours
Friday 29 November to Friday 6 December
12-4pm, Saturday, Sunday, Thursday and Friday
Open by appointment
In a dimly lit space, six vessels subtly glow in
place, seemingly unstable, either hanging precariously beside us, or perfectly
balanced on plinths of stacked cinder blocks. The forms challenge their
perceived fragile state (and associated ‘feminine’ connotations) through their
unwavering instability in space. They cannot be rooted in one place, one
environment, one time. Rather, they appear as if falling, about to tumble over,
whilst solidly staying upright. They challenge our need for our bodies and visions
to steady them as we teeter nearby, and in doing so, they assert a specific
unsteady presence upon us.
Tyler’s
control of her materials - porcelain and stoneware - are explored at two
different scales. The stoneware is the base for the two larger pieces within
the space; a tripartite vessel with each segment pulling away from the core,
and a hanging form, a hint of greyish blue apparent, its rippled
edges spilling
out from its centre and folding back onto itself. Their glaze, dolomite with
small diopside crystals, covers its surface with different effects. In some
parts, the glaze pools, creating a solid white spill with a shimmer from an
additional glaze elixir of whiting, kaolin and potash feldspar. Whilst in other
areas, the stoneware below breaches through and creates a striped and textured
surface of vertical lines. Tyler reveals that this effect is the result of an
intentional lack of control when firing. Rather than use ‘medium-fire’ whereby
the heat ensures a reliable finished form, Tyler relinquishes her vessels to
‘high-fire’ that pulls the vessels in different ways and challenges the glaze’s
adherence to its surface. Here, the earthen vessels, reminiscent of dream-like
ecological findings, become affected by the elements, much like other natural
organic beings, and, are in turn, shifted and shaped.
Tyler’s
entrance into porcelain has also challenged her understanding of humidity, heat
and fire. Rather than her familiar tacky stoneware, the porcelain is butter
soft and pliable. Unlike the aged appearance of the large stoneware forms,
these four smaller vessels are brighter, newer somehow, or even futuristic.
They shift towards the horizontal, rather than the vertical, as they spread
outwards. Stratums and growth sitting the tallest on its very small,
perfectly balanced base, reaches outward as if in search for sun, light and
warmth.
sub-
super- are defining
prefixes to the vessel’s conditions within space. They are from below or
underneath, their earthen origins made from the subsoil below our feet.
Equally, they are reminiscent from the beyond, or the above, their ephemeral
qualities as if from both the past and future, an unstable timeline of
historical misplacement. On a smaller scale, Tyler’s process of building up the
forms, layer by layer, sub to super, reveal subtle datum lines around their
torsos. A scar here or there shows this more obviously, whilst a particular
angle of light might reveal a slightly rippled surface. Installed in Quality,
with its multiple vertical and horizontal reference lines, these datums reflect
a similar approach to scale as that of a wall, floor and ceiling. Much like the
building of a dwelling, different levels are built upon each other to define
space, manipulate light and create atmosphere.
In sub-
super- Tyler explores two different material substances that embrace and
reflect the material and elemental conditions around them. In the six white
seemingly fragile forms, the connection between the artist and her earthen
material is revealed to create something that is squarely within our
environment, of our environment, and about our environment. The result is a series of sculptures
that speak to a unique relationship between the maker’s hand, the conditions of
the environment around her and her vessels, and the ferocity of light and heat
on material ecologies.
Text by Sophie Adsett
Kohl Tyler is an Aotearoa New Zealand-born artist based in Naarm Melbourne since 2018. Driven by an interest in ecology and navigating one’s enmeshment within it during the contemporary age, Kohl Tyler looks to the natural world, sciences, archives, and phenomena as starting points in her sculptural practice. Ideas of interconnectedness, life’s ephemerality, and notions of ecological grief are then explored and realized predominantly in ceramic sculptures, occasionally in watercolour and through social practice.
DEC24 SUB- SUPER- Kohl Tyler
Quality presents ‘sub- super-’ by artist Kohl Tyler, in collaboration with MARS Gallery, Naarm Melbourne.
Gallery hours
Friday 29 November to Friday 6 December
12-4pm, Saturday, Sunday, Thursday and Friday
Open by appointment
In a dimly lit space, six vessels subtly glow in place, seemingly unstable, either hanging precariously beside us, or perfectly balanced on plinths of stacked cinder blocks. The forms challenge their perceived fragile state (and associated ‘feminine’ connotations) through their unwavering instability in space. They cannot be rooted in one place, one environment, one time. Rather, they appear as if falling, about to tumble over, whilst solidly staying upright. They challenge our need for our bodies and visions to steady them as we teeter nearby, and in doing so, they assert a specific unsteady presence upon us.
Tyler’s control of her materials - porcelain and stoneware - are explored at two different scales. The stoneware is the base for the two larger pieces within the space; a tripartite vessel with each segment pulling away from the core, and a hanging form, a hint of greyish blue apparent, its rippled
edges spilling out from its centre and folding back onto itself. Their glaze, dolomite with small diopside crystals, covers its surface with different effects. In some parts, the glaze pools, creating a solid white spill with a shimmer from an additional glaze elixir of whiting, kaolin and potash feldspar. Whilst in other areas, the stoneware below breaches through and creates a striped and textured surface of vertical lines. Tyler reveals that this effect is the result of an intentional lack of control when firing. Rather than use ‘medium-fire’ whereby the heat ensures a reliable finished form, Tyler relinquishes her vessels to ‘high-fire’ that pulls the vessels in different ways and challenges the glaze’s adherence to its surface. Here, the earthen vessels, reminiscent of dream-like ecological findings, become affected by the elements, much like other natural organic beings, and, are in turn, shifted and shaped.
Tyler’s entrance into porcelain has also challenged her understanding of humidity, heat and fire. Rather than her familiar tacky stoneware, the porcelain is butter soft and pliable. Unlike the aged appearance of the large stoneware forms, these four smaller vessels are brighter, newer somehow, or even futuristic. They shift towards the horizontal, rather than the vertical, as they spread outwards. Stratums and growth sitting the tallest on its very small, perfectly balanced base, reaches outward as if in search for sun, light and warmth.
sub- super- are defining prefixes to the vessel’s conditions within space. They are from below or underneath, their earthen origins made from the subsoil below our feet. Equally, they are reminiscent from the beyond, or the above, their ephemeral qualities as if from both the past and future, an unstable timeline of historical misplacement. On a smaller scale, Tyler’s process of building up the forms, layer by layer, sub to super, reveal subtle datum lines around their torsos. A scar here or there shows this more obviously, whilst a particular angle of light might reveal a slightly rippled surface. Installed in Quality, with its multiple vertical and horizontal reference lines, these datums reflect a similar approach to scale as that of a wall, floor and ceiling. Much like the building of a dwelling, different levels are built upon each other to define space, manipulate light and create atmosphere.
In sub- super- Tyler explores two different material substances that embrace and reflect the material and elemental conditions around them. In the six white seemingly fragile forms, the connection between the artist and her earthen material is revealed to create something that is squarely within our environment, of our environment, and about our environment. The result is a series of sculptures that speak to a unique relationship between the maker’s hand, the conditions of the environment around her and her vessels, and the ferocity of light and heat on material ecologies.
Text by Sophie Adsett
Kohl Tyler is an Aotearoa New Zealand-born artist based in Naarm Melbourne since 2018. Driven by an interest in ecology and navigating one’s enmeshment within it during the contemporary age, Kohl Tyler looks to the natural world, sciences, archives, and phenomena as starting points in her sculptural practice. Ideas of interconnectedness, life’s ephemerality, and notions of ecological grief are then explored and realized predominantly in ceramic sculptures, occasionally in watercolour and through social practice.