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About
Irene Grishin-Selzer is an Australian artist, based in Melbourne, who works predominantly with ceramics. Her art practice essentially engages with the notion of transience in nature, the shape of time and the sense of place. All of the natural world is seen as being in a state of flux with transformation and regeneration over the passage of time with all its internal rythmns and patterns and this contrasted with a spiritual constant.
Her practice takes two separate, but interconnected forms. The first is the clay paintings and clay drawings, the second is object-based pieces.
The clay paintings can be regarded as a form of abstracted cartography - sprawling maps where scale is difficult to fathom, but we encounter pockets of energy, the movement of tides, electromagnetic waves and the build up of deeply encrusted topographical layers. The object based pieces may be thought of as individual points of focus, tiny areas of exploration, sandwiched cross-sections that pierce the surface or enigmatic relics and artefacts that carry the traces of ancient forms of spiritual energy.
Making Process:
Irene Grishin-Selzer mixes her clay with layers of soil, sand and clay loam from her two studio locations in Boon Wurrung (Southern Victorian) and Waywurru (North Eastern Victorian) country. Combining the soil with clay, pigments, oxides and glazes is a tangible way to help define the shape of time and a sense of place. The build-up of textures enables a secret script of mark making that fuses together when fired to make ceramic paintings as thin as paper but strong as stone. Her work is a literal and powerful reminder of the interconnectedness of nature where all things both animate and inanimate, past and present are intrinsically linked.
Irene Grishin Selzer respectfully acknowledges the people of Boon Wurrung and Waywurru Country, the traditional custodians of the land on which she lives and works, paying respect to elders past, present and emerging, recognising that sovereignty was never ceded.
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