Handbuilt, glazed stoneware

200mm H x 230mm W x 150mm D

My way of working with clay is to push and explore the possibilities within infinitely expressive material. Able to take on shape, form and texture, clay is a plastic surface capable of registering what our minds and bodies are experiencing through touch – a fixed gesture documenting an emotion.
Building on the works I had already developed, I aimed to push the tactile nature of the Billow series pieces – continuing with what has now become my ceramics language – operating within the haptic, visceral, inviting touch, expressing emotion wordlessly but through form. Generating an unspoken understanding between viewer and ceramic piece.

Since earning her BFA (hons) at Elam School of Fine Arts and the Rhode Island School of Design, Annie Smits Sandano has exhibited extensively throughout New Zealand and abroad for over 16 years as a painter, print maker and most recently a ceramicist.