The Philosopher’s Egg, 2023, Wood Fired Stoneware, 7 x 10 x 6 inches
Through his latest collection, Sunkissed, Trevor Baird harmonizes the relationship between matter, psyche, spirit, and self. His process is essentially prehistoric, eschewing the charm and ease of contemporary technology. He instead strips the art to its marrow to harness its most primitive, natural components. In tones of olive, russet, and umber, the entirely wood-fired ceramic works gleam modestly with the same sheen the sun paints our summer arms, legs, and foreheads. To be kissed by the sun, or by fire, is to be transformed. Wood splits and hisses as it writhes into glowing scarlet embers, diminishing to porous black carbon and feathery ash; clay and feldpsar are hardened and fortified, hot and glossy. These elements don’t disappear, they simply change form—a transmutation. For as much as he is an artist, the ceramicist is by nature a steward of alchemy. His task is to give birth to what already exists—ancient matter, yes, but also himself and his viewer—as something altogether new.
Feted in the House of Light, 2023, Wood Fired Stoneware with Feldspar inlcusions, 29 x 11 x 2 inches
Materia Prima, 2023, Ash Glazed Stoneware with Feldspar inclusions, 10 x 19 x 7 inches
These works are fundamentally unconcerned with how clay can assimilate into the palatable, synthetic, unblemished aesthetic facade of modernity. Instead, they champion the dichotomous nature of the soul, implementing collective and at times unconscious alchemical symbols: a swan penetrating the negative yonic space between its wings with its own phallic neck; the bodhi tree; materia prima; the meandering path of Jungian dream analysis, alluding to the process of individuation.
Sheela, 2023, Wood Fired Stoneware, 11 x 9 x 2 inches
Arca Mundi, 2023, Ash Glazed Stoneware, 18 x 16 x 4 inches
The Swan, 2023, Wood Fired Stoneware with Feldspar inclusions, Pigmented Plaster, 8 x 10 x 12 inches
In Genesis, God puts Adam to sleep, opens his side and pulls out a rib. From this, comes Eve, and from Eve came forth every man. Woman as God, her womb a vessel. Understanding ceramics and the manipulation of raw materials as obstetrics-coded, Baird, too—mother, anima, or God—opens the fire and pulls out ribs. A recurring motif throughout Sunkissed, ribs are the artist’s interpretation of the alchemical concept of the vessel as the symbol for the soul. An homage to our internal scaffolding, the curved spindles of our bones housing the soft piles of our organs and their processes—a vacuum, almost, within which the agenda is digestive and cardiovascular, as much as it is concerned with processing ailments of the psyche—we are physical and spiritual containers. Baird hones the ribs in Animus Mondi, or “a chest for the world” in their anatomical cage form, a reminder of the contained, or imprisoned self. It’s impossible not to notice the negative space within them where a heart might be. With a near-self awareness of their captivity on the material plane, the works beckon the viewer to fill in the blanks: “who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”Sunkissed is currently on view at Pangée, Montreal. Excerpted text from Rebecca Storm
Shrine of the Meandering Path, 2023, Ash Glazed Stoneware, 8 x 8 x 7 inches
What Isn’t Nature, 2023, Wood Fired Stoneware, 10.5 x 8 x 6 inches
Holding Bowl, 2023, Wood Fired Stoneware, 8 x 6.5 x 9 inches
Trevor Baird’s Sunkissed
The Philosopher’s Egg, 2023, Wood Fired Stoneware, 7 x 10 x 6 inches
Through his latest collection, Sunkissed, Trevor Baird harmonizes the relationship between matter, psyche, spirit, and self. His process is essentially prehistoric, eschewing the charm and ease of contemporary technology. He instead strips the art to its marrow to harness its most primitive, natural components. In tones of olive, russet, and umber, the entirely wood-fired ceramic works gleam modestly with the same sheen the sun paints our summer arms, legs, and foreheads. To be kissed by the sun, or by fire, is to be transformed. Wood splits and hisses as it writhes into glowing scarlet embers, diminishing to porous black carbon and feathery ash; clay and feldpsar are hardened and fortified, hot and glossy. These elements don’t disappear, they simply change form—a transmutation. For as much as he is an artist, the ceramicist is by nature a steward of alchemy. His task is to give birth to what already exists—ancient matter, yes, but also himself and his viewer—as something altogether new.
Feted in the House of Light, 2023, Wood Fired Stoneware with Feldspar inlcusions, 29 x 11 x 2 inches
Materia Prima, 2023, Ash Glazed Stoneware with Feldspar inclusions, 10 x 19 x 7 inches
These works are fundamentally unconcerned with how clay can assimilate into the palatable, synthetic, unblemished aesthetic facade of modernity. Instead, they champion the dichotomous nature of the soul, implementing collective and at times unconscious alchemical symbols: a swan penetrating the negative yonic space between its wings with its own phallic neck; the bodhi tree; materia prima; the meandering path of Jungian dream analysis, alluding to the process of individuation.
Sheela, 2023, Wood Fired Stoneware, 11 x 9 x 2 inches
Arca Mundi, 2023, Ash Glazed Stoneware, 18 x 16 x 4 inches
The Swan, 2023, Wood Fired Stoneware with Feldspar inclusions, Pigmented Plaster, 8 x 10 x 12 inches
In Genesis, God puts Adam to sleep, opens his side and pulls out a rib. From this, comes Eve, and from Eve came forth every man. Woman as God, her womb a vessel. Understanding ceramics and the manipulation of raw materials as obstetrics-coded, Baird, too—mother, anima, or God—opens the fire and pulls out ribs. A recurring motif throughout Sunkissed, ribs are the artist’s interpretation of the alchemical concept of the vessel as the symbol for the soul. An homage to our internal scaffolding, the curved spindles of our bones housing the soft piles of our organs and their processes—a vacuum, almost, within which the agenda is digestive and cardiovascular, as much as it is concerned with processing ailments of the psyche—we are physical and spiritual containers. Baird hones the ribs in Animus Mondi, or “a chest for the world” in their anatomical cage form, a reminder of the contained, or imprisoned self. It’s impossible not to notice the negative space within them where a heart might be. With a near-self awareness of their captivity on the material plane, the works beckon the viewer to fill in the blanks: “who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” Sunkissed is currently on view at Pangée, Montreal. Excerpted text from Rebecca Storm
Shrine of the Meandering Path, 2023, Ash Glazed Stoneware, 8 x 8 x 7 inches
What Isn’t Nature, 2023, Wood Fired Stoneware, 10.5 x 8 x 6 inches
Holding Bowl, 2023, Wood Fired Stoneware, 8 x 6.5 x 9 inches