Interview with Artist Leah Wolff

Glyph Outdoor Speaker, 2016, Clay and glaze, 18.5 x 13 x 17.5 in



AHC: What first drew you to art?

​Leah: I was drawn to making art in high school, in part because of the feeling I got when I was in studio. It was one of the first times when I was able to enjoy a sort of deep and meditative concentration. Visual learning had always been an entry point for me (regardless of the subject) but once I started making my own work, I realized it was the first time I was really able to excel at something. I found that feeling addictive, and still do.

Cantilevered Balcony, 2016, Clay and glaze, 19 x 13 x 9 in



AHC: Can you tell us a bit about your process, themes & inspirations?

​Leah: I got my BFA in Printmaking from Rhode Island School of Design, which continues to influence the way I make work. Most printers tend to think and plan their work in layers, which is certainly true in my case. Additionally, there is something very freeing about the process of printmaking - where you must relinquish a certain amount of control because you never know exactly what the final outcome of the piece will be before you run it through the press.

When I began my MFA at Columbia University, I was introduced to ceramics and I instantly fell in love with the process for many of the same reasons. Ceramicists have a limited amount of control over the final outcome of their work. Tests of course help, but much of it is left to chance. This can be incredibly freeing, as not knowing what the outcome will be allows me to take chances in my work.  Both Printmaking and Ceramics are ancient, process-oriented technologies that rely strongly on the hand and mark of the artist. Moreover, both are becoming increasingly obsolete as they are replaced by digital technologies, such as 3d and digital printing.

Magnetic Motion Demonstrator, 2015, Glazed Ceramic, 14 x 12 x 12 in.



AHC: The notion of visual paradox in your work, its relation to creation, potential & permutation is fascinating. Can you tell us a bit about your philosophy & approach to this

​Leah: I am drawn to optical illusions because they create a contradiction between what we perceive and what we know to be true, giving the viewer an opportunity to re-examine their own sense-perception. Positivism asserts that observational evidence is indispensable to forming our knowledge of the world, and yet the act of viewing an illusion brings the validity of that evidence to question.

With my ceramic work, I start by hand building the overall form using clay slabs. Once the form is fired at a low temperature, I transfer a picture onto its surface. This creates the challenge of translating a 2-dimensional image onto a 3-dimensional surface. Often, the end result creates an anamorphic optical illusion: From most angles, the object appears as warped or skewed; however - from one specific vantage point the image appears as representational. As the viewer walks around the piece, the image changes form. This makes the experience of viewing my work linear, and time-based - keeping the viewer aware of their spatial relationship to the form.

Motion of the Sun, 2015, clay with glaze, 7.5 x 13 x 13 in.



AHC: You've referenced Henri Bergson in relation to your work, can you tell us which of his ideas have most fueled and inspired your own work? Are there other thinkers who have also had a similar effect on you in relation to issues of perception, creation & potentiality that you explore in your art?

​Leah: Because of the limited definition of what constitutes real empirical analysis, the institution of modern-day science has become a gatekeeper of sorts between the individual and their search for higher meaning. In Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth Foucault discusses power-knowledge as it is utilized to block the access of the individual to their own personal methods of discovery, by labeling those practices as illegitimate pseudo-science and therefore unverifiable. An illusion forces the viewer consider the subjectivity of truth, and in doing so throws one of the pillars of institutional science into question.

Still Life - Hydroponics as a Hobby, 2014, Photo transfer onto clay with glaze, dimensions vary



This leads me to The Whole Earth Catalog, which I have been using as my source images for some time now. Printed from 1968 to 1972, the catalog was intended to provide education and access to tools by listing products that could be used by anyone to foster a creative, self-sustainable lifestyle. Its primary function was as a mail-order catalog that fostered a community amongst its readers, encouraging dialogue and an exchange of ideas. Its mission of spreading information along with the inclusion of user generated content became a precursor to our present-day blogosphere. Just as an illusion forces the viewer to reconsider where the truth lies, the catalog encourages the reader to re-examine their own relationship to production.
​

The catalog encourages the reader to re-examine their own relationship to production. In An Introduction to Metaphysics, Bergson distinguishes between two modes of knowing; absolutely and relatively. An absolute knowledge is an understanding gained only through experience. In my own practice, that “experience” constitutes the making of my work. I choose paradoxical ideas and images to work through physically in order to better understand them. I believe that by being a maker, one can gain a more absolute knowledge of a subject.
​
​

Wilderness Survival Kit, Photo transfer onto clay with paint, 11 x 11 x 3 in.


In a way, the Catalog was an extremely prescient event. As a vestige of the 1960’s back-to-the-land counterculture movement, it foreshadows the massive online DIY communities that exist today, empowering their readers to become makers. In other words, It was an analog publication with pseudo-digital aims. I want my work to exist in a similar way; as contemporary relics, pseudo-artifacts and analog fragments from a digital era.
​

AHC : Do you have any upcoming exhibits or projects you'd like to tell people about?

​Leah: Yes! I am included in a group show called Rules, Tools, and Fools at  Spudnik Press Cooperative in Chicago IL. Also, I will be participating in a group show called VERBLIST curated by Mark Epstein at E. Tay Gallery in New York City, opening on September 13th. Check out my new work at www.leahwolff.com/