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Appreciating and sustaining our connection to the earth and each other is more important now than ever. As we continue to become engulfed in the enticing and ever-expanding digital realm and as our political and earthly climates grow exponentially hotter, making a conscious choice to engage in slowness involves a radical change in perspective.

 

The works exhibited in Elemental Encounters, a two-person exhibition by Alyson Brandes and Liz Berger, embody the importance of craft, slowness, and the quality of natural materials. All the pieces in the exhibition contain the four earthly elements in some form. In creating her ceramic pieces, Brandes uses clay from the earth, air to harden it, and fire to solidify. Works exhibited are products of salt, soda, wood, raku, and gas reduction firings, where arduous processes reward with unique surfaces. Berger’s naturally dyed works are colored with earthen dyestuff in pots of water heated by fire and dried by air to cure. The works displayed use pigments extracted from food waste and other sustainably and ethically sourced materials, such as pomegranate rinds, avocado pits, black walnuts, pincushion flowers, and marigolds.

 

Chance is inevitable in both Brandes and Berger’s work, where there is a delicate balance between chaos and control. Long hours and physical labor go into every step of their process, but ultimately, they must relinquish their control to chemical transformations. Bestowing trust in the earthly elements is inherently part of their process- it is often unavoidable. Both artists find inspiration and connection through the unpredictable nature of their materials. Brandes’ process connects her to her deep ancestral intuition and identity and Berger’s to the collective conscious and unconscious (material and immaterial) experience. The ephemerality and temperament of the earthen materials allow the pieces to take on lives of their own.

 

Letting go of control is a difficult task, but it is within the loss of control that transformations and new encounters emerge. Elemental Encounters displays works that embody a connection to natural material, slowness, and the beauty of chance.