Firing Sculpture, Aarhus Academy of Fine Art, Denmark

It's been several years since this sculpture was build, however the memory of it still stands out very clear in my memory. It was an extraordinary experience of what clay is capable of as a material if you treat it right. It also taught me not to worry to much or be scared of the material - it's only clay. Just try out different things, actually the worst thing you can do working with clay is to put out taking the crusial decisions.

The sculpture before the kiln was build around it. It's me in the front of the picture. We only had five days to build, dry and fire the sculpture which is, if you think about it, far from realistic planning. And on top of that it was raining most of the time, so drying out the sculpture before firing it wasn't really happening. But we managed anyway, only with at tiny bit of damage to the sculpture.

Fring the sculpture (I'm sitting in the pile of wood). The sculpture is wrapped in ceramic felt which works as a kiln. We used around 5 tons of clay and 12 m3 of wood to fire it.

The sculpture revealed glowing in the night. When the sculpture are on top temperature it is unwrapped, imaging the heat radiating from 5 tons of clay fired to 1100 ° C. It glows for a surprisingly short time, before it turns dark, it is a bit like firework.

Despite the size, these firing sculptures are very fragile due to the harsh treatment they are exposed to in the firing and therefore often don't last long. Normally winter and frost erodes them.  

 

The following day: