Metta's aesthetic have a significant influences from graphic, architecture and her upbringings in Glodok. In the very beginning of this project, she reminisced one of her favourite activity while working in the architecture studio was looking through the site plans, sections and perspective drawings - and wander. Also on how much she loved cutting papers, book binding and experimenting on colours with the printers.
In Mosaic 15, she carried her graphic practice to adapt with the ceramics realm through a picture that Metta merely remember drawing; she only recalled the joy and peace she had every time she drew it. As this is the first time for everything with her and ceramics, every single thing was exciting to her. Overwhelmed, she decided to do what's familiar to her and applied that to clay.
Had a picture in mind, she wanted to create a piece that is perfect for each other. A combination that creates the perfect illusion of infinity, therefore she made each mosaic piece with exact shape and arrangement. Pursuing this made her learn to pay more attention on planning the drawings and materials, determination to keep on producing the consistent piece and archiving the process through sketches, photography and film.
With the ideal and expectation that she impose on Mosaic 15. Metta strives to pursue the consistency and flatness on her slabs which was a challenging tasks in Anagama. As she wanted to fabricate an almost machine-like piece through a soulful natural mediums – Knowing that, Hillary shared to her that, " ... once your piece gets into the kiln and got fired, you have to let go of all your self and mind." Metta loved the philosophy, until the piece is unloaded from the kiln and everyone is surprised how unexpected the expectation was, it came out very much as expected but unexpected in a way for Metta, because everything, again, is unknown to her.
ELEMENTS
SLAB
The Slabs were all brushed with terra sigillata slip on top and stacked with rice straws in between to give the lustrous line effect. Some of the slab pieces got an interesting glossy grey surface as a result from the ashes exposure onto the pieces. Splatters of peach, mandarin, cobalt and celadon were present on few pieces too.
DIAMOND
The Diamonds were brushed with cobalt slip on top and wadded over various spots in the kiln to be exposed directly with the fire in order to fumes the blue shades. Some of the less exposed pieces has turned into a slight olive and breezy forest mood.
TRIANGLE
Applying the same colour treatment as The Diamond. Triangle became the most important element in the combination as it holds the primary pivots in the mosaic structure.
MOSAIC 15
Ceramic. Wallpiece. 120 x 90cm. Ubud, Indonesia | Anagama Firing - 1230c. Terrasigilatta Slips - Rice Straws Effects
DOCUMENTARY SPIRIT OF NATURE
GALLERY THE SPIRIT OF FIRE WITH HILLARY KANE AND GYAN WALL
Photo courtesy of Metta Setiandi and Gaya Ceramic Arts Centre | 05 - 18 April 2015. Ubud, Bali. Indonesia
Versatile. Demure. Resilient
Anxiety and depression struck weeks before Metta started the workshop, that draws her into spiritual healing through meditation practice. These series of events has deepened her character and wisdom towards crafting her piece. It was about simplifying the details, refining the core, building the demurely masculine pieces and understanding each piece through the finishing processes.
© Metta Setiandi