Keri Straka

Protection, intimacy, birth, growth, and erosion, play out micro dramas in porcelain-stoneware and fabric landscapes. The amplification of organic textures and figurative shapes suggest elements of the natural world, while alluding to sensual and corporeal experiences of the human body. These forms create the poetic resonance of a somatic body response in the viewer by drawing visual parallels between biological forces expressed in human tissue and, erosion incurred by geological processes.

The infectious embellishment in the surface of ceramic forms imply protection, just as the fabric membrane encapsulating the human body suggests containment. There is a visual and conceptual push & pull relationship found within a seductive yet slightly menacingly decayed surfaces and the idea of being viewed as a specimen. The connective tissue of various parts of the forms, suggest nesting, growth, and the dual nature of parasitic relationships. These forms also navigate through the territory of intimacy through interior vs. exterior exploration, while asserting the connection between body and land. I am pushing the relatedness of the human body and the natural world, as one entity.