Research and Innovation Spotlight: A Ceramic, Mixed-Media Sculptural Installation

In this Research and Innovation Spotlight video, Jeannie Hulen, associate dean in Fulbright College and professor of ceramics in the School of Art, talks about her recent solo exhibition, “Gibberish: Mineral Bilateral Stimulation.”

The installation was one of four inaugural exhibitions this spring atArtsOnMain, formerly the Center for Art and Education, in Van Buren. It was also part of Hulen’s ongoing “Gibberish” series, which she says, “examine global environmental issues and visually investigate the complex and troubling relationships between human beings and the natural world.”

This latest installation took Hulen and six assistants more than eight days to complete before opening, including carefully hanging more than 11,000 small terra-cotta clay particles –each partially glazed with metallic gold and bronze –from individual, hand-tied copper threads.

Hulen said the particles create a floating riverbed, which “mimic the real-world phenomenon of tiny clay particles that absorb water and form the clouds and fog that we see above us in the natural world.”

In addition to the riverbed above, the installation featured more than 100 slip-cast rock objects made from molds of mass produced, fake plastic rocks –the types used to hide keys and electrical objects in yards –to create the porcelain and terra-cotta clay display. Hulen fired the porcelain to cone 10 using traditional high fired glazes and low fired the terra-cotta unglazed like planters.

The porcelain rock-like objects all rested a top, with terra-cotta mirrored below, pedestals created from CNC milled plywood, which Hulen says is “reminiscent of tree rings, soil samples and structural geology alluding to the striations in the landscape forming plinths resembling mountains.”

The effect was something like walking through a natural landscape or rock-scape, with faux-real geological materials creating an enchanting yet surreal experience of the natural world.Throughout her “Gibberish” series, Hulen has intended to circumvent overburdened themes such as environmentalism, she said, in favor of “a non-linear, fantastical position calling attention to less evident aspects of the relationships between people and the natural world, including intellectual, psychological and numinous facets of this symbiosis.”

Video compilation created by Michael Stoker, video clips and interview by Shabana Kauser of CACHE, and still photos by NovoStudio.