Norwegian artist Kjersti Sletteland’s Untitled (2015) is a piece of found broken porcelain. On to the piece’s edge the artist has drawn red horizontal lines that crisscross its body and allude to the thickness of the material’s wall. The lines juxtaposes against the original crackled glaze that covers the porcelain’s surface. This piece of writing for the ‘Unfinished Compendium of Materials’ will focus on the story of crackle glaze, and how through the example of this piece of artwork, artists work with both its material effect and history. Porcelain has a long and prestigious history that recounts the west’s 1000-year relationship with china, through trade and culture. Untitled was made in response to the object’s found state, its condition contrasting with its exalted history. Its crackled surface is suggestive of its age and use and can be considered both a defect and aesthetic choice. The fineness of the crackle, its leaf and cellular pattern are by products of a chemical reaction in the firing, patterned chance often only revealed over time. Untitled’s transformation is achieved through working with the surface of the porcelain, and responding to the lines already present not as a ground to write upon but as its starting point to work with.

• https://knowingfromtheinside.org/files/u...