Uriel Caspi: Selected works, 2018-2020
“From early childhood I developed a fascination to clay. I realized that working with clay enlightened me spiritually and emotionally, which in turn influenced my ideas; Clay became the media in which I could express thoughts and feelings. Along my artistic practices, I develop my own working methods and my visual vocabulary, mostly within the spectrum of vessel-body-sculpture. Creating in this versatile field allows me to manipulate traditional forms into ’embodied objects’, either as a part of series or as an individual figure. The evolution of the works guides me towards a neverending morphological research of interior and exterior, color and shape, light and shadow.
As an emerging artist originated from the Middle East, archeological remnants turned to be a conceptual aspect in my work. Antiquity connotations from my local surroundings may be transformed into contemporary interpretation, that occasionally associate with multicultural references. The transformation inspires me to dig into myself and uncover my ‘personal-sphere’. This “inner excavation” reveals narratives, memories, personal sediments and identity components that compose the iconography of my art.
Pre historic artifacts as well as objects from my daily routine inspire me constantly, and generate my artistic progress between the object to the sculpture. Small gestures within the aesthetic quality of the object could be interpreted as a sculptural element with archeological features. Moreover, some elements in the sculptures could be referred to external entities and nonfictional artifacts and creatures. The results could be interpreted as a creature, as an organ or as a device.
Alongside the visual and the conceptual aspects of my works, materials and technical research appeared to be an integral part of forming my art. Using the qualities and the aesthetics of traditional techniques in an innovative perspective, demonstrates the predictability and randomness of the process and the wide limits of ceramic materials. I wish to create interactive installations which reflect my individual and experimental voice and communicate with the audience simultaneously. And hopefully the viewer will feel and understand something in another way.” Uriel Caspi
Photo captions
- Tell / Tell Me, 2018, H: 11’’ W: 20’’ each, stoneware, porcelain, Parian slip, Terra-cotta, glaze, olive wood ash, wheel throwing, 3D modeling, slip casting, pressing molds, high temp. reduction firing. Installation (2019) of eight pieces at The Hecht Museum, University of Haifa, Israel. Photo credit: Sasha Flit
- Him in Blue, 2018, H: 40’’, Stoneware clay, engobe, glaze, Jarre-a-la-corde technique, high temp. oxidation firing. Installation (2020) at the Tel Aviv Biennale for Arts and Design, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel. Photo credit: Shai Ben Efraim
- Dubie in Gray, 2018, H: 35’’, Stoneware clay, glaze, Jarre-a-la-corde technique, high temp. reduction firing. Installation (2020) at the Tel Aviv Biennale for Arts and Design, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel. Photo credit: Shai Ben Efraim
- Tell / Tell Me, 2018, H: 35’’, Stoneware clay, glaze, Jarre-a-la-corde technique, high temp. reduction firing. Installation (2018) at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem. Photo credit: Ilan Amihai
- Tell / Tell Me, 2018, H: 40’’, Stoneware clay, engobe, glaze, Jarre-a-la-corde technique, high temp. oxidation firing. Installation (2018) at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem. Photo credit: Ilan Amihai
- Tell / Tell Me Polyptych, 2018, H: 39’’ W: ~10’’ each, stoneware, engobe, glaze, lustre, pressing molds, high temp. oxidation firing. Installation (2018) at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem. Recent acquisition of “Raphael”, Tel Aviv, as part of the show “The body in art, the art as a body”. Photo credit: Ilan Amihai
- Posthumans, 2019, H: 20’’-23’’, stoneware, engobe, wheel throwing and altering, high temp. oxidation firing. Photo credit: the artist
- Personal Spheres, 2019, D: 25’’ stoneware, engobe, wheel throwing and altering, high temp. oxidation firing. Photo credit: Ray Im
- Personal Spheres, 2019, D: 25’’, stoneware, engobe, wheel throwing and altering, pressing molds, high temp. oxidation firing. Photo credit: the artist
- Personal Spheres, 2019, D: 25’’, stoneware, engobe, wheel throwing and altering, pressing molds, high temp. oxidation firing wood. Installation (2019) at the Forum Gallery, Cranbrook Academy of Art, MI. Photo credit: the artist
- Triptych in Blue, 2019, H: 39’’ W: 28’’ each, stoneware, engobe, pressing molds, high temp. oxidation firing. Installation (2020) at ArtSpace Gallery, Richmond, VA, at the NCECA Conference. Photo credit: the artist
- Remnants in Blue, 2019, H: 39’’ W: 28’’, stoneware, engobe, pressing molds, high temp. oxidation firing. Installation (2020) at ArtSpace Gallery, Richmond, VA, at the NCECA Conference. Photo credit: the artist
- Space #1, 2020, stoneware, engobe, mid temp. oxidation firing, PVC pipe. Photo credit: the artist
- A+B, 2020, stoneware, engobe, mid temp. oxidation firing , PVC tubing. Installation (2020) at the Robert C. Turner Gallery, Alfred, NY. Photo credit: the artist