AILI SCHMELTZ
Current Exhibit
Cairn Series
The Cairn sculpture series is directly informed by the landscape around my clay studio in the Mojave Desert, a 5-acre parcel with a 1958 jackrabbit homesteader cabin where Black Lava Butte and Flat Top Mesa have a strong presence. The igneous rock and native plants of the region guide color and material; the use of rough, textured earthenware echoes the earth and its process: iron, copper, potassium, quartz. Geologic time lays itself bare, everything here is incomprehensibly old, I get to see only a small phase of its life cycle. I sculpt clay and fire it slowly at high temperatures as an empath to the lava rock, mimicking the geological heating and cooling that they have endured. The 3D printed and press molded modular units are stacked and notched together, an act of stacking stones, a very old form of marking time and place making.
I am also very heavily influenced and inspired by the Art Deco architecture in Los Angeles, where these iconic structures stand as monuments to the early 20th century philosophies of idealism. These geometric structural elements are often simplified and stylized botanical forms that were pulled from the areas plush mediterranean landscape to symbolize a place or mindset of enlightenment. I pull from these Utopic, Art Deco, and Modern traditions to create hybrid futuristic relics, monuments that mark time and the striving of our lives towards a better place while nodding in acknowledgment to the past. These simplifies and abstracted architectural motifs speak to the optimistic endeavor of attempting to communicate idealized strategies for a better tomorrow through form, color, and the alchemical ceramic process.
Although these pieces’ geologic timeline has been forced by my hand, I find an unspeakable amount of pleasure knowing that they will outlast me, I am seeing just a small sliver of their evolution. They represent everything enduring to me, but I am simply a blip on their timeline.
Aili Schmeltz, 2024.
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