sylwia tur
In my creative process I tend to avoid that which already has a solid representation in the world. Instead I focus on ideas and mechanisms, extrapolating them into the objects I make. They come in forms of gestures and fragments of seemingly disjoined processes, and I task myself with finding their patterns and rules.
Language, as an agreed upon system of conventions, may often seem arbitrary, but it is in fact governed by rules and processes which are regular, structured, and intuitive. Through years of unconscious statistical observations and computations in our minds, we know what is allowed in the language and what is not, what belongs there and what is an outlier.
The awareness of patterns is intuitive, even if we cannot name them.
We only notice them when an irregularity or divergence arises. It is only when looked at closely these patterns emerge into a coherent set, a linguistic system, a language.
Even though I am drawn to architecture, I see it as a system of processes and treat its organized and multi-dependent nature as a canvas for my work, a starting point. It is on that canvas that I build my linguistic systems, primarily in the syntactic and phonological space. While syntax deals with the entire sentence level structure, phonology goes to the smallest units of sounds and principles that govern them. However, both are forms of grammar and both draw their conclusions from an interaction of segments, be it words or phonemes.
It is the processes that govern language that I apply to my sculptural work. I use my understanding of language principles and through my own arsenal of shapes and objects create dependencies and interactions.
My work begins in one of two ways: either with a specific linguistic process in mind which I want to explore or with a mental representation of shapes and their relationships, which end up connecting to a linguistic node.
What I am essentially creating is my own language of objects, my linguistic system in the visual and mental space, not unlike that of I-Language, an individual or internal language, thought to be a mental object (in Chomsky’s transformational grammar).
By applying principles of science I strive for the elegant solution, which tends to be the simplest one.
V
WHEN WORKING ON MY SCULPTURES, I AM USING ANALOGIES SIMILAR TO THE PROCESSES
THAT COME TOGETHER TO FORM LANGUAGE.
GESTURES 2014
porcelain / variable, e.g. 7” x 12” x 15”
FRAGMENTS 2014 - 2016
porcelain / variable, e.g. 24 “ x 12” x 6”
SCALE 2012 - 2013
porcelain / 70" x 56" x 3"
QUARTER TURNS 2012
porcelain / 12' x 8" x 8"
90 DEGREES 2012
porcelain / 20" x 20" x 2"
OSCILLATIONS 2011 - 2014
porcelain, powder coated aluminum or metal and tool dip / 12' x 30" x 20"
FORMANTS 2011
porcelain, rubber tubing / 30" x 48" 20"
MANY-TO-ONE 2010
porcelain, glaze / 17" x 25" x 7"
CONGLOMERATION 2010
porcelain / 30" x 25" x 10"
CANVASES 2009 - 2010
porcelain / variable, e.g. 17" x 12" x 6"
TOOLS 2009
porcelain / 18" x 11" x 16"
2016
(upcoming) Solo Show, Linda Hodges Gallery, Seattle, WA
2015
Storefronts, Arsenal - site specific installation - juried, Seattle, WA
NEPO 5k Don't Run - 111 Attention Cups - juried, Seattle, WA
2014
Making and Breaking, Linda Hodges Gallery - invitational, Seattle, WA
Accreted Terrane, Museum of Northwest Art, curated by David Francis - juried, La Conner, WA
NEPO 5k Don't Run - Porcelain Plantations - juried, Seattle, WA
Real Abstract, Linda Hodges Gallery - invitational, Seattle, WA
Artist Trust, 27th Anniversary Benefit Art Auction - juried, Seattle, WA
2013
Storefronts, Templates - site specific installation - juried, Seattle, WA
Terra Linear-the ceramic line, two installations: Scale and Templates, curated by Lisa Conway - invitational, Vancouver, WA
2012
Abstract Affinities, Francine Seders Gallery, curated by Anne Hirondelle; in conjunction with 46th NCECA conference - invitational, Seattle, WA
The Potter and the Urn, Lundgren Monuments, curated by Greg Lundgren; in conjunction with 46th NCECA conference - invitational, Seattle, WA
Clay Lives Here! Seattle Design Center, curated by Wally Bivins; in conjunction with 46th NCECA conference - invitational, Seattle, WA
Artist Trust, 25th Anniversary Benefit Art Auction - invitational, Seattle, WA
2011
Heaven and Earth 3, COCA (Center on Contemporary Art) Point Shilshole Beach & Carkeek Park Outdoor Exhibit; site specific installation Interactive Canvases, Seattle, WA
SOIL 2011 Invitational Art Auction, Seattle Design Center, Seattle, WA
Seattle Weekly's Artopia, Seattle, WA
2010
Outsider/Insider, COCA (Center on Contemporary Art) - invitational, Seattle, WA
Heaven and Earth 2, COCA (Center on Contemporary Art) Carkeek Park Outdoor Exhibit; site specific installation Rungs, Seattle, WA
Meet Greet Rinse Repeat, Monarch Contemporary - invitational, collaboration with Troy Gua, Seattle, WA
Resident Alien, COCA (Center on Contemporary Art) - invitational, Seattle, WA
Mapping, Monarch Contemporary - solo show, Seattle, WA
MadArt Redux, Foster/White Gallery; curated by Phen Huang & Bryan Ohno - invitational, Seattle, WA
2009 - 2010
ART 2010, Viridian Artists and Friends, Viridian Artists Gallery - invitational, New York City, NY
2009
Sculpture Burial Map, site specific outdoors installation (ongoing), Washington State
Collision, 1020 Group Show, Ouch My Eye Gallery, Seattle, WA
Heaven and Earth, COCA (Center on Contemporary Art) Carkeek Park Outdoor Exhibit; site specific installation Language within Landscape, Seattle, WA
Ship It II, Ouch My Eye Gallery, Seattle, WA
Room for Eleven, NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts), Juror: John Balistreri, Phoenix, AZ
MINI MINI: A 4 x 4 Mini Art Show, Conspire Art Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
MINI MINI: A 4 x 4 Mini Art Show, Cartel Coffee Lab Tempe, AZ
Artist Trust, 22nd Invitational Art Auction, Seattle, WA
2008
Raw, Pottery Northwest Gallery - solo exhibit, Seattle, WA
Connected by Clay, Sea-Tac Airport Exhibit, Seattle, WA
PONCHO Invitational Art Auction, Seattle, WA
Clay? II, Kirkland Arts Center, Jurors: Doug Jeck, Akio Takamori, Jamie Walker, Kirkland, WA
2007 - 2008
Language Builds, installation at the Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA
2007
PNW Resident Show, Pottery Northwest Gallery, Seattle, WA
The Big Bang Birthday Bash, auction at the Henry Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Artist Trust, 20th Anniversary Benefit Art Auction, Seattle, WA
Sample Points, Pottery Northwest Gallery - solo exhibit, Seattle, WA
2006
PNW Resident Show, Pottery Northwest Gallery, Seattle, WA
SOIL 2006 Invitational Art Auction, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA
Architecture of Language, Ceramics Gallery, University of Washington - solo exhibit, Seattle, WA
Ceramics Biennial Exhibition 2006, New Hampshire Institute of Art, Manchester, NH
19th National Juried Art Exhibit, South Cobb Arts Alliance, Mable House, Mableton, GA
Show and Tell, Ceramics Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Regional Juried Exhibition NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts), Jurors: Nan Smith & Sam Chung, Portland, OR
School of Art OPEN, Jacob Lawrence Gallery, University of Washington, Juror: Esther Lutthikuizen
2014
Accreted Terrane, Museum of Northwest Art; exhibition catalog
2014
The Monster Art Show with the soft underbelly: what happened at NEPO 5k on Saturday, The Stranger Blog, September 10
2011
Culture Dose: (Interactive) Canvases, Josh Potter, Seattleite Magazine, August 2, 2011
2010
Heaven and Earth 2, Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition at Carkeek Park, Center on Contemporary Art exhibition catalogue
2010
Does Art Belong in Nature?, Rachel M, REI Blog, August issue
2010
Lines between nature and artifice blurred in outdoor exhibit, Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times, July 1, 2010
2010
'Heaven and Earth' exhibit reopening at Carkeek Park Saturday', Humberto Martinez, Seattle PI blog, June 22, 2010
2010
Resident Alien, Local Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean, Center on Contemporary Art exhibition
catalogue, ISBN: 978-0-9842388-6-6
2010
Fantasy, attire, language, Marian Liu, Seattle Times, March 4
2010
Sylwia Tur: Mapping, Monarch Contemporary exhibition catalogue
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1186222
2009
Heaven and Earth, Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition at Carkeek Park, Center on Contemporary Art exhibition
catalogue, ISBN: 978-0-9842388-1-1
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