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Material Art & Design

Miao Xuan Liu

Catastrophe's Whore

Sculpture
2023
Glazed ceramic
11x8x5.5 inches (head), 11.5x3.5x6.5 inches (wings)
Three separate ceramic mounds emerge from the ground, making up the face and wings of a creature. The creature has long hair and two sets of sockets where eyes should be, its face hovering just above the nostril line.

“As Axis Mundi, or Spigot of Divination suggests an Above beyond our known world, Catastrophe's Whore indicates a realm beyond our perception Below, yielding the membranes between worlds porous. Blue glazes were intentionally avoided, because, although a figure submerging/emerging from water is an apt visual metaphor, I wanted to imply a Below beyond our tangible experience. The glaze is lustrous, leaky, wet. It betrays movement, the film leftover from excretion, the thin membrane between worlds punctured.

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Catastrophe's Whore
Catastrophe's Whore
Catastrophe's Whore
Catastrophe's Whore
Catastrophe's Whore
Catastrophe's Whore
Catastrophe's Whore
Catastrophe's Whore
Catastrophe's Whore
Catastrophe's Whore

Work by

Miao Xuan Liu

Sculpture, Ceramics, Textiles

“/From the black gulf explores the trickster archetype as cope, as praxis, as spiritual surrogate. As an archetype defined by multiplicity, shapeshifting, and transformation, the trickster occupies a...” [More]