Details
Wild red clay and kaolin slip from Bisalta
Fired in oxidation at 1250°C
⌀ 32.5 cm
Stamped with material details and UA/Clara Holt logo on the base
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She winters in blankets of leaves and cracks of logs.
She lives in the midst of the flame without pain, her icy gaze extinguishes the fire with a breath.
She slips out when the flowers bloom, stretching their long green arms in the shadow of the mountain peaks, weaving the thoughts of men.
When I see you, I am a lizard in the sun.
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The clay for this large round tile was foraged from a deposit of quartzitic clay on Mt Bisalta. The bright kaolin slip comes from just a few hundred metres below, from a small vein of weathered Bisaltite, a type of green rhyolite typical of the mountain.
It is decorated with the sgraffito technique.
Mt Bisalta is a mountain in the south of Piedmont. It’s a special place for its recognizable two-tops shape visible from all around the region, a symbol of the Italian Resistenza and the partisans' liberation fight from the fascist regime.
About Clara Holt x Unurgent Argilla
Sonia Pasquinelli, aka Clara Holt, is an Italian illustrator and a decorator. She completed her classical studies and has always had a passion for classical literature, Greek epics and the surrealist current, which guide her in her research and personal interpretation of her subjects. Each piece is a one-off, illustrated with a drawing inspired by places, mythology or childhood stories.
Nina Salsotto Cassina is an Italian ceramicist. In 2019 she founded Unurgent Argilla, focusing on material research of non-industrial wild materials. Unurgent Argilla is a vocabulary of wild materials, a study of what’s around us, repeated on spherical vessels, which she uses as a canvas to convey a spatial narrative. The final vases function as both signposts and autobiographical archival memories.
In 2021, Clara Holt and Unurgent Argilla started a collaboration to narrate specific places through their combined styles of storytelling: materials and decoration.
Together they are working on a series of vessels and tiles made and decorated with different wild clays and rocks collected throughout Italy. Each piece is thrown and the illustration is specific to the setting where the materials were collected. Their first vessels together focused on volcanic rocks from Pantelleria, they are now working with a wider range of wild high fire clays, slips and oxides foraged mainly around the Alps.
Delivery
Delivery to Mainland UK within 3-5 days
Delivery to International addresses within 7-14 days
Returns
If for any reason you are not happy with your purchase, we offer a full refund on the safe return of any artwork. We must be notified of the return within 14 days from the date the artwork arrives with you. The return method is the responsibility of the buyer however if the return is due to any misunderstanding from our website description or images, the gallery will cover the costs of the return too.
Available to purchase via OwnArt
UK-based buyers can split the cost of this work over 10 months with an interest free loan via OwnArt. Contact the gallery for more details.