Worshipping

Tammie Rubin

2018, pigmented porcelain dipped ball moss, twine, cotton, and steel wool kiln-fired, underglaze, resin, 24 x 16 x 24 in.

"The wispy tendrils of the native Texas ball moss serve as a visual metaphor for the perception of external versus internal conflicts, beliefs, connections, chaos, and confusion. Tillandsia recurvata is more commonly known as ball moss, an air plant that is commonly found grasping to limbs of live oaks and other trees in southwest Texas. Not a parasite, ball moss does not absorb nutrients and water but merely attach to a structure by growing connected tendrils that encircle the stems and branches. The moss grows slowly over time often unseen and unnoticed until a sick tree seems to be consumed. Sculptures are constructed of ball moss clusters dipped into saturated colored porcelain slip along with knots and tangles of twine, cotton and steel wool. These forms are overwhelmed with porcelain slip, covering, drowning, distorting, and obscuring the original then kiln fired. The extreme heat of the kiln vitrifies the porcelain incinerating the organic interior, what is left is a memorialized object frozen in time, a relic of the place of its collection. What is lost? What remains? What is remembered?"

Tammie Rubin

http://tammierubin.com
IG: @tammierubin