Reef

The ceramic medium reflects sculptor Liz Larner’s affinity for compositions that redefine our relationshipto space and our environment. To create Reef, Larner mixed foraged elements such as rocks and minerals into a clay formation. She then subjected them to the process of firing and glazing, which can cause radically different outcomes depending on the conditions. The work’s hybrid makeup and the contingent process that created it serve as material metaphors for the relationship between humans and the natural environment, as something that is reciprocal, unpredictable, and at times fragile. Indeed, for Larner, sculpture is a “medium that can address how our world is produced and the factors that go into forming it.”