PAVEL ZHURAVLEV

AVAilable pieces

about

Lives and works in Moscow Region, Russia.

“Only the organic process can struggle with gravity. In wild clay, I want to express how organic expansion confronts the gravity pulling into non-existence. A virus changes the structure, creating countless mutations, one of which becomes a new stage of evolution. I take the traditional shape of the vessel as a basis and in the process of making it, I mutate it as if it is a virus. Through these forms, I want to express how a virus destroys in order to create.”

Wild clay is a compound of stones, sand and clay mixed by nature. This combination maintains the beauty of its randomness. Stones and sand are left in the clay and therefore play part in the naturalness and imperfection of the object. The wild clay is dug from a pit in the forest, close to the river Nerl.

The vessel is made only by hands and stones as tools for modeling, then fired in a small primitive firewood kiln where flame closely contacts the vessel. The intimate space in the kiln allows detailed textures on the surface, created by the flames of the wood. The outcome is always unpredictable and unique.