A porcelain canvas for light
- Katherine continuously explores the material properties of porcelain
- Her practice is deeply rooted in an exploratory process
- She believes vessels carry quiet stories of time and place
Katherine Glenday defines herself as an artist working with clay, a path she stumbled into while studying fine arts. Her kinship with ceramics was kindled when she first discovered porcelain in 1982. "I absolutely fell in love with porcelain," she says. Her expertise was galvanised by an apprenticeship with South African porcelain doyen, Marietjie van der Merwe. Katherine's practice challenges traditional vessel making by stretching porcelain to its thinnest form. "I forge for light," she says. "In my process, clay leads the outcome." Katherine embraces slumping and cracking, and has mastered the art of letting go. She creates pieces that evoke a great sense of stillness.
INTERVIEW
I think it leans towards the function of a sacred object in the home. I work very particularly with reverence and reference to the domestic realm. The sacred altars of the home are really where my inspiration comes from. The work has a function for the soul.
Clay and ceramics were a necessary part of studies in fine arts. I was good at it, so I became more interested. Once I saw someone working with porcelain, I absolutely fell in love with the material. I was passionate about the material's translucent and fluid nature, and how it catches the light.
The most important thing one can learn from porcelain is to let go of the outcome and work with what happens. You reinterpret and carry on, because porcelain is the boss. I break all the conventional rules of working with the material.
It is what I call a Katherine wheel, containing circles within circles, with a lot of visual metabolising. I think with my hands and render my thoughts into small things that include multitudes within. Gradually, through compositional sorting, I work on the piece until I reach something that is very still.
