Photograph by Armin Kianfar
Photograph by Armin Kianfar
Photograph by Armin Kianfar
Photograph by Armin Kianfar
Photograph by Armin Kianfar
Photograph by Armin Kianfar
(Breeding) Ground is an iterative quilted performance created with ceramic baskets becoming sifters. These baskets are crafted from ceramic hump molds formed from milled foam. I roll and pinch clay coils together, moving up and around the form, building upon the mold. This repetitive, tactile process embodies breeding as nourishment and cultivation—bringing life, ideas, and practices into being, much like the generational cycles of craft traditions passed down through family and community. Once fired, the baskets are tools—vessels of translation—that sift powdered materials such as baby powder, charcoal, and rust. These materials fall through the negative spaces in the basket’s weave, creating patterns across the floor. Layer upon layer, these patterns intertwine to form a quilt composed of the language of basket bottoms. Quilting calls to breeding as cherishing and cultivating, entwining material and memory within each sifted layer. The floor is ground—stabilizer, connector for discharging energy, foundation for growing and being while depth as in the bottom of the sea or the invisible layers beneath surface. (Breeding) Ground is inspired by my grandmother who was devoted to quilting—a meticulous practice of stitching together fabric, stories, relationships, and histories. Her hands, like mine, engaged in repetitive motions building, creating connection and continuity. Ground honors this practice where quilting holds material and memory as the floor is treated as canvas and ground for exploring relations of lineages of craft and care.
(Breeding) Ground. 2020-2024 Variations. Ceramic, baby powder, rust, charcoal.
University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder Colorado, USA.
Della Davidson Performance Studio, University of California Davis, Davis, California, USA.
True and Real. 2025. NCECA Annual Exhibition. Curated by Dr. Judith S. Schwartz. Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
Rivers, Reflections, Reinventions. 2021. National Juried Exhibition. Juried by Jessika Edgar and Malcolm Mobutu Smith. DAAAP Galleries, National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Conference, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.