Some look like formations plucked from a coral reef or like sections of innards cut from a living body. Others look like undulations in a pond or volcanic smoke.
But what all the hollow, amorphous sculptures in Cory Mahoney’s ceramics exhibition “This Wasn’t Supposed to Happen” have in common is that they allude to the natural world. Contrasting this theme is metalwork undergirding or containing the colorful ceramic pieces.
“When you have that juxtaposition between the clay and the metal, which is making a reference to architecture, it further validates the organic quality of the pieces,” Mahoney said.
Those who entered the exhibition also said the pieces reminded them of something anatomical or natural.
“The ceramic is formed in a way that’s very biomorphic. It almost resembles a brain structurally,” junior fine arts major Natalie Cruz said.
Steve Jacobsen, who works as a model for the art department, said it looked like something that might have grown out of the ground, which isn’t too far from the truth.
The pieces begin their life as clay, known to clay-workers as “green” when it’s wet and plastic. For Mahoney the molding process is mostly open ended and unplanned.
“When I start a piece, most of the time I don’t have an intention of the way it’s going to look when it’s done,” Mahoney said.
Once he feels the piece is complete, its fired, sometimes going through multiple firings.
“I’ll take the kiln as high as 2,200 degrees,” Mahoney said.
Firing vitrifies the clay and it can no longer be reworked. After its hardened, the glaze and color are added. It’s at this this point that Mahoney decides how the piece will engage with metal.
One of the cornerstones of Mahoney’s work is serendipity. He says he enjoys leaving the formation of the pieces up to chance.
“I give the pieces the opportunity to collapse on themselves a little bit and respond to what gravity gives me, what their wetness or dryness allows me to do,” Mahoney said. “I play off of those circumstances.”
As the title of the exhibition suggests, Mahoney is inspired by the ephemeral, the spontaneous and the unintentional.
“It’s the things I encounter everyday that seem to have more life than a fixed structure that influence the formal qualities of the work, smoke from a fire, ink dropped into water, the crumpling of a dinner napkin. Their forms are fleeting and I remember them as snapshots in time,” Mahoney’s said in a statement posted in the gallery.
Mahoney, a Fine Arts major who has been working with clay for three years, started off as a graphic design major. It wasn’t until he took an intro hand-building course that he realized he got more fulfillment from working with his hands than on a computer screen.
“It was love at first touch I guess you could call it,” Mahoney said.
Asked how it felt to have his pieces displayed, Mahoney said: “Seeing all the work together presented the way that I really want it to be validates everything that I’ve done more than just seeing the pieces tucked away in the studio. It’s gratifying, it’s exhausting, it’s emotional. It makes it all worth it.”