I create design objects with bold and stylized surface patterns – which feature tessellations, optical and geometrical illusions – by integrating innovative digital fabrication methodologies with traditional ceramic processes. The emotional drive and creative intention is to challenge and expand viewer’s and user’s perceptual assumptions when experiencing a minimalist yet complex functional design object.
Inspired by the Gestalt Theory of Visual Perception – where the mind tends to find order and logic in what the eyes see – I design patterns to instigate a dialogue between form and surface. I use lines and curves to distort and add dynamism to the surface of the work, and I use seams and negative spaces to create contrast and tension within a form.
The way that patterns are framed within a form, where they are cut, assembled, and overlapped, alludes to the process of film editing – assembling separate but related parts to create a sequence that is larger than the sum of their parts. Additionally, the patterns’ reliefs add a surprising tactile experience when the work is held, touched, and used.
I fire my work in both atmospheric and electric kilns, constantly advancing my explorations surrounding the synergy of forms, surface design, and materials research.
Biography
Yael is a ceramic artist of North African descent who applies her formal studies in Graphic Design (BA) and Cinema (MFA) to ceramics. In 2021 she received the Multicultural Fellowship Award from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). Her work has been exhibited in Museums and Art Galleries in the Usa and Japan, and is part of permanent collections in the Usa. She has been a Ceramic Artist in Residence in the United States (Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Starworks Ceramics) and in Japan.