Alana Wilson

The work of Alana Wilson, an Australian ceramicist, straddles the border of primitive and contemporary aesthetics. Her work is an exploration of this aesthetic blend and improvements to glaze technology. Her work blends aspects of the modernist and post-modernist philosophies, it is a contribution to the constant creative dialogue.

The Dialectic of Art

Stemming from Immanuel Kant’s transcendental logic from his seminal work, The Critique of Pure Reason, modernists, and Alana Wilson, applied the same principle to their creative endeavours. Kant sought to define a subdivision of logic, a logic based in pure intuition, removed from the abstractions of experience. Alana Wilson, affected by Kant’s thoughts, seeks to create works that focus on the unique aspects of ceramics. Her work is, simply, unrepresentable in other mediums. Yet, the work of Alana Wilson has a distinctly post-modernist edge. She frequently explores traditional forms, reassembling the debris of the past, often using elements of pastiche and parody of these traditions. Alana Wilson, straddling this edge, has created works that combine seriousness and joviality, originality and irony. It is a beautiful fusion of aesthetics.

The Application of Philosophy

Applied to her work, Alana Wilson embraces the elements of texture and three-dimensional space. Each ceramic is the result of extensive research and experimentation to create unique glazes and decaying surfaces. Ingredients are added to her glazes, promoting pitting, bubbling and textural maturation during the firing process. More recently she has focused on the firing process itself, firing her works multiple times to build thick and layered glazes. In a word, her creative focus is decomposition. Decomposition of the material whilst it maintains its structure. The sculptures of Alana Wilson approach the transcendental aspect of the medium, leaving the empirical, the experience, entirely to the viewer.