Or(e) 3: Matter

Katherine Glenday's ceramic work series "Or(e)", explores our very plural capacities to wit(h)ness a world in crises through the lens of clay, hands, touch and what I call "tactile theories". The ores harvested from the earth to make the clay she works with, allow for an infinite array of colours, textures and shapes to form as they respond and wit(h)ness the world around her. The impact extractivism has on the earth is not lost in this title, paying homage to what impact our cutting into the earth for minerals has on it. Yet, what we do with these ores is the significant question, that Or(e) can be used for being with the world, or destroying it. The ore itself becomes a lens or substance in which we become awake to the world.

Through over 4 decades of refining her capacities in clay, this installation of vessels, considers the many delicate and tender ways we can wit(h)ness and become vessels for the other, human and more-than-human. As Rose Shakinovsky writes: “When encountering Glenday’s work for the first time what strikes one is a sense of stillness, refinement and grace. The meditative pieces each with their own unique resonating sound and purity of form evoke a sense of clarity, simplicity and inner peace. Her work however defies being purely essentialist, platonic and rarified, as there are parallel series that speak of fallibility, insecurity, confusion and suffering.”