Phase Change

Phase Change, 2019

40” X 8” x 54”
Wood, unfired porcelain, plexiglass, ice, Braille

The changing landscape of ice and snow on the planet gave rise to this piece. Each day, ice placed inside the forms melted, creating unpredictable changes in the unfired clay structures. Over the weeklong duration of the exhibition, the evolving decay in the forms was documented. On the final day of the show, the forms that remained were removed and the unfired clay recycled.

It is thought-provoking to visualize what occurs as ice melts and becomes water. The sagging, slowly decaying clay structures, so contained in this temporary work, revealed the relentless, erratic nature of water. The global forces at work are likewise persistent and have already wrought prodigious change.

Braille is used in my artwork to address cultural, political, and social blindness.

Braille text on each cylinder:

1. Phase change describes a dynamic process whereby solids becomes liquid

2) or liquids become a gas. We are witnessing phase change on an

3) unprecedented scale. As the climate warms on our planet, freshwater ice

4) is rapidly melting. Sea levels are rising threatening coastal ecosystems and

5) human habitation. Increasingly fierce weather events bring catastrophic

6) floods and life-threatening heat waves. It is thought provoking to visualize

7) what occurs as ice melts and becomes water. The sagging, slowly decaying

8) clay structures, so contained in this temporary work, revealed the relentless,

9) erratic nature of water. The global forces at work are likewise persistent

10) and have already wrought prodigious change.

Acknowledgements:

3D porcelain printing courtesy of the ISU Construction and Computation Lab; Erin Hunt and Kelly Devitt, assistants; Shelby Doyle, Assistant Professor, Architecture, Director.