SHAHAR LIVNE

Memento Mori, 2020

 

​Stoneware, pigment

30 x 6 cm 

Unique piece with signed certification

2020

The Netherlands

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Photo credit: Paolo Mottadelli

Courtesy: Camp Design Gallery​​

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“A Memento Mori (‘remember that you must die’) is a symbolic reminder of the inevitability of life and death. Ceramic casting in traditional plaster moulds, creates erosion in the plaster. The acid in the clay slowly breaks down the plaster, weakening the mould and deteriorating it, thus making the dialogue between the two materials their ‘’Swan song’’. A ceramic collection of 4 twin shapes, sculptural and functional, inspired by the parallel line between the process of ceramic casting and growth and decay of organic beings. Through experimenting with different ways of creating “erosion” or “wilting” processes in plaster moulds through hand manipulation, the final object is a collaboration between the physical and the mind and acts as a “photograph” of a moment in time of the process. The starting point of the process is a ceramic archetype shape, in this case a shallow bowl, gradually, the material is taken off from the mould in a three-dimensional matter, changing the shape until the mould can’t “take it” anymore and breaks. Each shape can be cast but as the mould develops, the former shape will never be reproduced again. While working with the mould, a dialogue between the material and the creator begins, a handmade ‘’conversation’’ between material and human, documented through representational shapes.

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