The practice of technoceramics
- Timea is an experimental ceramicist and sculptor
- She has a background in medicine and neuroscience
- Her pioneering pieces combine handmade and digital techniques and principles
Timea Tihanyi combines art and science to advance the field of ceramic and mixed media sculpture as she creates large and small pieces using new techniques. After moving from Hungary to the USA in 1993 to pursue a PhD in neuropsychology, she took a ceramics class that changed the direction of her life completely. Timea took an MFA in ceramics and her practice progressed from figurative sculpture to large porcelain installations. Her interest in science and technology persisted, and she taught herself 3D printing, coding and digital systems. She now combines these tools with traditional methods to address the use of technology in clay in her research space, SlipRabbit. Timea is interested in rule-breaking as she pioneers this practice, often collaborating with mathematicians to apply algorithmic principles and achieve innovative forms. “I firmly believe in a growth mindset of continuous change and transformation,” she says.
Discover her work
INTERVIEW
I was always making things, but in those days, a career in the arts was neither available nor an aspiration. I learned to sew, cook and grow a garden from my grandparents. One of my most cherished memories is making Bauhaus-style photo collages with my father.
Studying medicine and brain science led me to reflect on the dualism of the mind and body. I recognise now that my artwork has always been an attempt to understand and describe a push-pull dynamic of opposing forces, inside and outside, body and mind, and past and present.
I have a special printer that pressurises and extrudes a paste-like materials, forming a thin, threadlike coil that builds the object in layers. It allows me to make highly textured porcelain surfaces that I can manipulate, cut, fold and drape, much like fabric.
In 2017, I founded SlipRabbit, an interdisciplinary research space for the advancement of 3D printing in ceramics. We connect artists and technologists and develop technoceramic or digitally aided tools and host residencies, internships and collaborations.
