From ceramics to healing
- Loren’s hand built sculptural vessels and lighting pieces carry a South African influence
- Clay has been a medium for creativity and recovery for her
- Her Bells of Forgiveness piece resides in the art collection of South Africa’s Constitutional Court
Loren Kaplan trained in fine art and photography in South Africa before illness redirected her towards clay. A friend took her to a ceramics class and the immediate tactile connection to the material became both a form of therapy and the basis of a new career. “Through repetition and silence, the making becomes meditative,” she says. Loren’s practice aided her recovery and has allowed her to connect with her roots through art. Working first in shared studios, then in her own, she developed a language of hand built vessels and lighting strongly influenced by botanical and African basket forms. Now based in Toronto, Loren continues to explore the tension between structure and fluidity in clay, from meticulously built forms to more intuitive and distorted silhouettes.
Interview
- When did you first discover a love of clay?
- I studied fine art and majored in photography, and later tried to begin a master’s degree. During that time I fell into a very deep depression. A friend took me to a ceramics class, and it was the first time I had really touched clay. I felt completely at home and gradually moved from one class a week to building a full practice.
- How has the medium influenced your life?
- Clay pulls me out of my head and into my hands. I have to be in the moment, because the material shows instantly when I am not present. It was central to my recovery.
- Can you share a turning point in your work?
- I was researching how bells are used in different cultures as calls or signals and made a group of ceramic bells as an installation about self-forgiveness. Someone suggested the idea would resonate with the Constitutional Court’s focus on healing and reconciliation. We presented it to them, and the piece, Bells of Forgiveness, was accepted into the collection.
- In what ways has your move from South Africa to Canada impacted your practice?
- Leaving South Africa meant losing the community through which I understood myself. I had to rebuild it in Canada. Recently, with new black-clay vessels influenced by botanical forms and complex glazes, I felt a genuine turning point. It is a more experimental, less rigid way of working that reflects this ongoing process of re-anchoring myself.
Loren Kaplan is a master artisan: she began her career in 1993 and she started teaching in 1995
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Loren Kaplan
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