Florian Gadsby

Totem IV

There aren’t any secrets when it comes to assembling these. It’s a balancing act, in my studio at least where I’m the only one stomping around and the floors are solid concrete slabs. I could jump next to this pile of pots and it wouldn’t sway, yet in a public setting, the entire tower is carefully fixed together with dots of museum wax. Certain pieces can be filled with sand too, to add heft and each vessel is carefully rotated in place to find the most level footing. Still, the wax isn’t perfect. In a hot, exhibition space environment, it softens and thus the entire totem becomes a little less stuck together.

It’s not a perfect solution, but what is? Is glueing all the pots together favourable? What about making them with holes pierced in their very centres, this way each can be slotted onto a long metal rod, a kebab of clay. There’s another world where you encase the lot in a slab of resin, although that renders them lost forever in a blob of plastic, which isn’t very inviting. I’m sure there are other workarounds.

For the time-being at least, I’ll keep stacking them like this, balanced with a rope around them to stop anybody getting too close.

#pottery #sculpture #minimal #ceramics #clay