The Space In Between
2024 | Raw fibre clay, nylon fishing thread
Kate Roberts creates an unfired clay installation, a large, site-specific, porcelain gate that examines the temporary physicality and meaning of structures and the spaces they exist within. This structure could dictate a split between class, race, wealth, beliefs, and territory, a moment in-between.The installation questions the gate’s permanence. By leaving the clay unfired it is no longer able to contain or protect, its vulnerability unmasked. Roberts draws inspiration for the form from iron gates found around India. At the end of the exhibition the clay gate will be cut down – its death – and the material recycled with the hope that it will be reused to make future pieces – its rebirth. This process parallels our relationship with the natural world. Nature bears life, nature takes life away, humanity resists, but nature, in the end, has the final say. And without question the cycle begins again.
KATE ROBERTS is an American clay artist. She received both her MFA and BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2015 and 2010 respectively. She has completed residencies around the world including Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Montana, Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado, and the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris. She has created large in situ ceramic installations in major exhibitions such as the Parcours Ceramique Carougeois Biennial in Carouge, Switzerland and the Korean International Ceramic Biennial in South Korea. She currently resides in Memphis, Tennessee and is an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Memphis.
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