ATTILA OLAH
Clay brought discipline and excitement into my life at a time when I was doing a lot of soul-seeking about my place and trajectory in the world. Clay felt familiar almost as though I had touched its language in a previous life, as if it was a guiding spirit from a forgotten dream.. working with clay, over time, became a process of self-healing and self-discovery. The humming of the potter’s wheel, the repetitive processes of wedging and centering, letting go and starting over, the silences, the anticipation of a glaze firing are but a few of the experiences that continue to shift the inner and outer landscapes of my world. Through the work I do today both as a facilitator and maker, I have found a fertile and life-affirming path that poses challenges and opportunities in equal measure meanwhile filling me with a sense of purpose and gratitude. I have been running Altar Pottery; a community-oriented ceramics studio since 2019.
Throwing on the potter’s wheel, one cannot help but feel connected to the past. The very material with which the maker engages is saturated with the memories of geological processes that may have had a crucial part to play in the genesis of human life. Informed by an intimate engagement with raw materials and processes, my practice increasingly gravitates toward simplicity, both in its execution and aesthetic qualities. As a maker, I apply myself fully, my hands alone would not suffice. I let the past, present and future filter through me and deposit their residue in the mould of my imagination. I have trust in my inability so I wait for a space to open up in me. I “download” the information from what feels like another plane, as truthfully as I possibly can. And times innumerable I fail. So the process is repeated until the distance between my imagination and the work in front of me becomes bearable.
In my bravest moments I imagine creating artefacts which have gravity and presence to them. When these forms ring out true their geometry becomes analogous with the feeling of harmony. The surface of such objects seem to undergo a chain reaction when touched by light, they seem to emanate themselves into existence. I suspect that works of this kind emerge from a life-long devotion, where the maker and the artefact dissolve into one another and neither is possible without the other… these artefacts are like visual poetry, compositions of matter and emotion, they are lived experience, freedom of fear, embracing the unknown... these are time-bound undertakings, unearthed from within and without.
