CONTEMPORARY ART
The Exploded Earth series is a document of the movement from order to chaos. A stoneware clay body is explosively detonated with a fireworks charge. Often impressed in relief on their exterior surface with textures gathered throughout my travels, the pyrotechnic minerals which scorch the interior of the exploded mass randomly color the glaze and the clear glass which I use to fill their hollow recesses. Taking up to 2 years to dry and up to 2 weeks to fire at 2500 degrees in a cone 12 reduction kiln, they are not manipulated after the explosion and represent a pure document of the event. In this way, Exploded Earths become windows into parallel events like earth geologies and galaxy formation.
Cocoons suggest the notion of transformation, both of the body and of the spirit; my intention is to convey the idea of metamorphoses in relation to the human condition. I have created their forms to stand at a human scale or larger to confront the viewer. As large scale works of blown glass and forged metal, materials are combined in a way previously thought impossible. Standing within such an environment, one can become overwhelmed; one can equally become lost among their forms or feel caged in.
-Steve Tobin
Collection
