ANGELICA TULIMIERO & SARMITE POLAKOVA
TEXTURES AND PATTERNS IN NATURE.
Artist Angelica Tulimiero is based in the small Italian town of Cava de' Tirreni, the home of a commune that is known for its ceramic production. Close to the coast, the sea and its creatures and textures infiltrate her work, re-emerging from the waves in the shapes and patterns she creates in her studio on the surfaces of otherworldly clay pieces.
YELLOW CELL
Tulimiero’s work embodies the contradictions of nature. The pieces seem at once alive and yet fossilised; hard and bright, and yet soft and inviting. Her contemporary work is intricate and textured. On many of her pieces she incorporates additional soft materials after firing the clay to create layers of tactility.
“I have always worked to disguise senses,” she explains. “I made hard stoneware forms that seem soft and fluffy, I also added other materials to enhance the feeling – like wool, cushion filler, glass.”
EXPLODED CELL
Her work, she claims, is form of therapy – absorbing and creative. It brings her into the present moment, which is a gift that has been especially useful in a year so full of unexpected turns.
“I cure myself by rolling clay in my hands. The alchemy is fascinating; clay is an extremely captivating material,” says Tulimiero.
“The exploration of textures has been and still is an incredible journey, guiding me in all my work. I am instinctively attracted to intricate surfaces. I find them everywhere and the more I research the more I realise how everything is made of patterns.”
SPRING HAS BROUGHT POLLEN
Tulimiero looks for the inner world of all things and for the inner structures that unfurl in repetitive patterns in all forms in nature.
“I laboriously play to interpret these forms and the perception of movement they create. Though drawn from the imagination, my creations reference our world and the atoms of which it is composed. I play with the familiarity of the forms and the oddness of the sensations.”
MOFU MOFU
Tulimiero references fractals in her explanations of how she creates shape. Fractals are complex patterns that repeat at different scales, from the tiniest of atoms to the largest of objects, expanding always with symmetry.
Several pieces of Tulimiero’s work are available on the Cluster online shop. Look closely at the images and you will notice tufts of wool appearing out of the firmness of the porcelain.
YOU CAN BUY ANGELICA TULIMIERO’S PIECES THROUGH OUR ONLINE SHOP
Also paying close attention to textures in nature, Latvian designer Sarmite Polakova has a particular interest in matter and material research.
Her work centres around the transformation of different natural materials into new design objects via sometimes complicated processes that she has pioneered.
Pine Resin
This way her designs are not only aesthetically interesting, but in their very molecules they tell their narrative of becoming. One of her greatest concerns as a maker is with sustainability and creating pathways to more eco-friendly design options. In this way, she believes, we can better celebrate and preserve nature.
PineSkins and PineResin are the two materials that Polakova has created and uses in her work. PineSkins is made from the inner bark, and ranges in colour from earthy brown to pink or deep terracotta.
PineResin is a glass-like composite material that plays tribute to the pine tree. It is made of a fusion of ash, bark, resin and sawdust and infused with natural pigments.
Polakova’s ongoing project PineSkins exemplifies this fascination with materials and processes. Almost leathery looking, the pine bark products are aimed at breaking the stereotypes around traditional bark timber.
Pine is customarily seen as a cheap timber, but Polakova’s pieces ask you to rethink this assumption. She carefully harvests the bark and celebrates its unique texture, colour and scent.
The design pieces she creates with the pine bark invite people to stop, touch and to smell the forest.
Pine Skins Flakes
Pine Skins Bark
“I create organic shapes borrowed from the forest language, and copy textures from nature. The shapes I create seem familiar, and yet are at once original.”
Pieces from PineSkins and PineResin currently form part of the Cluster Crafts online exhibition and shop. Both projects address the forestry industry and the overuse of timber, pine wood in particular. Pine wood is very popular due to its cheap price, but the other parts of the tree are almost always completely ignored.
“I propose more balanced production methods and use the pine tree as my single source for materials – from the bark to the leftover branches that are considered too small for timber production. From pine resin, sawdust and even charcoal and ash – all these tree parts serve as ingredients to make new material combinations.”
Polokova hopes that her pieces trigger curiosity in the viewer, and an interest in a unique material.
“I hope people learn something new about a natural resource through my work.”
Thank you for reading,
Katie De Klee & Cluster Team.