It’s confusing being so spread out. I’m part ‘model minority.’ Maybe a victim of racial oppression. I have been taught to never be a victim. I am only half anything and nothing in me feels whole. Do I have a homeland? Can I ever feel safe and at home anywhere? My genes from おばさん (Grandma) and Vectētiņš (Grandpa) transmit generational trauma, great skills, and flaws in my genetic code. How can one pursue their ancestry without knowing that it can break you as easily as it can shape you?

Process of おばさんとVectētiņš

I looked into the traditional pottery methods of both Latvia and Japan looking for similarities and differences. I  decided to try using a method of firing popularly known as Obvara known in Latvian as rūdītā keramika or melnie podi. It is shown in the video  final obvara video.MOV One bucket had a fermented mixture of warm water yeast sugar and flour, the mixture that you will find widely recommended on the internet. However I wanted to incorporate the idea of food waste management and what my family traditionally eats on both sides of my family into the dipping mixture. So in the lighter white mixture there is rice, all purpose flour, sake, yeast, umeboshi aka Japanese pickled plums, a bit of the shiso leaf that is traditionally packaged with the plums, pickled ginger, and sugar. In the red/pink mixture went rye flour, sugar, yeast, pickled beets and their juice, Rīga Melnais Balzams (a traditional liquor), and milk. The fermentation for the two buckets with alcohol happened off campus in my house and was quite bad smelling by the 4th day (it went on for 7). The fermentation mixes well with the unclear boundary between life and death that I enjoy playing with. The yeast is eating the food that you give it and the chemical reaction that happens depends on the food you give to the yeast. The gasses and the smells also depend on this food. The shape of the pots is created using the Japanese technique called kurinuki which involves taking a solid block of clay and carving away from it. Revealing the form that is hidden beneath. 

Specs

Title: おばさんとvectētiņš

Date: 4/15/2024

Medium: Stoneware Ceramics

Scale: Various