Wade MacDonald

The bridge between ceramics and architecture is multifaceted and synergetic. Both address social dilemmas through their aestheticism and utilitarianism. By heightening this correlation through the contextualization of the table and the use of multiple construction materials a more affable human quality to contemporary architecture emerges. As architectural models, viewers gain insight into their unique place within a larger social landscape. Clay acts as a conduit between past and present notions of material innovation, challenging our concepts of new architectural paradigms as well as questioning our responsibility in the global twenty-first century.

As a studio artist, I embrace handcraft and digital methodologies as I work toward defining sculpture that is personally and culturally significant. I build ‘vessels’ with sections formed by pressing terra cotta clay into plaster molds the way bricks are formed, yet their final structures recall the dynamism of digitally rendered architecture through their complex planar relationships.