Barriers

“Barriers” is a sculpture about the feeling of being trapped by one’s own thoughts. This sculpture is a large ceramic chain that hangs down from the ceiling in the middle of my thesis exhibition. This piece is an interactive sculpture, as people can hang handwritten tags from the piece. These tags will have written words of advice, encouragement, or personal struggle. As the piece gets more covered with rainbow tags, the chain will eventually not be visible, showing that the people around you can help relieve the feelings of being trapped in your own mind.

Barriers started off with extruding thousands of small coils

I then cut each coil into 4 inch sections and looped each piece, connecting the edge closed.

Once the last of the sections were joined, I finished fired the chain to cone 04 (1945). The finished sculpture is 10 feet long and 10 feet wide!

Next I continued to make loops and connect sections of chain. In total I made 11 10-foot sections and 110 1-foot sections

I then bisque fired all my sections. After bisque-firing, I then extrude more coils and used those to make chain links connecting each section. I did this part very carefully and I built inside the kiln. These links are very fragile when dry and can only hold weight after they are fired.