Where ceramics and delight collide
- Joël creates wheel thrown composite sculptures and furniture pieces
- His practice explores ceramics within and beyond the domestic space
- He aims to create items that offer a moment of delight
Joël Brodovsky-Adams is a ceramic artist whose work sits between sculpture and furniture. Growing up surrounded by ceramic objects crafted by his grandmother and father, he developed an early, intimate connection to clay. In 2013, as he began studying biology, Joël enrolled in a wheel throwing class and quickly fell in love with the medium. This led him to pursue further ceramics training through workshops and postgraduate studies. Wheel throwing has since remained the cornerstone of Joël’s practice as he explores the expressive languages of gesture, ornament and movement. His sculptures and functional furniture pieces seek to capture traces of the body as lived, ephemeral moments.
INTERVIEW
My relationship with colour is relatively recent. For a long time, my practice focused primarily on pattern and surface. Colour initially felt intimidating. Around 2019, I began to explore it more closely, particularly through textiles and fashion, to understand how patterns stretch, move and adapt to the body. I often look to fashion for inspiration.
I draw to keep track of my ideas, even though I am not really a visual thinker. I tend to think through the entire process in my head before I start making. Then it is very hands-on, throwing many parts, assembling them into larger components, firing, glazing and reassembling. The act of making generates new ideas, so the process is always evolving
I am constantly pushing my technical skills, particularly in how I use the wheel. The wheel sets parameters and boundaries, and I am interested in working against those limits. I often think of a quote by Bill Viola, “Boundaries generate friction, friction generates heat.” That is how I like to think about the studio.
I do. I hope people derive pleasure or delight from the work. I often return to the idea of ornament as an ethos. It is, at its purest, meant to provide pleasure. I want to stimulate that feeling in people. It feels like my contribution is to offer someone a moment of delight.
