Nest Ceramic and Mixed Medium Small Sculpture by Barry Ace
Nest . Mixed medium sculpture of vitrified clay, slip paint, bronze screen, copper, metal and resistors, 17 (l) x 9 (h) x 21 (d) cm, 2018.
Ace mentored with master Anishinaabe potter David Migwans in his home community of M’Chigeeng First Nation in preparation for his 2020 solo exhibition at the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation.
The premise for Ace’s residency was to examine the work of a specific Anishinaabe artist represented in the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation’s art collection and then to work with them to study process and learn technique in the creation of new works that incorporate an intervention of Ace’s electronic component work. As a maker himself, Ace has always been impressed with the masterworks of artist David Migwans. Working both at David’s outdoor home studio and at the newly installed pottery studios at the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation, Ace worked intensively with David Migwans to create several new innovative pots.
Transforming functional pottery in to abstracted sculptural forms, Ace vitrified several of these pots. Vitrification is the formation of glass that is accomplished through the literal melting of crystalline silicate compounds into the amorphous, noncrystalline atomic structure associated with glass. As the formed clay works are heated in the kiln, the clay turns into progressively larger amounts of glass. Vitrification in an outdoor kiln is very difficult, due to the shifting levels of temperature from firing the kiln with wood, and this heightens the probability of the material shattering under the intense heat.