May 1–May 22, 2022
Sundays 3pm–6pm
Niche Gallery is delighted to present Blow Up, an installation by Raina Lee.
The pleasures of translation, replication and comparison run throughout Raina Lee’s Blow Up. In the garden, visitors are met with a selection of large and varying ceramic objects– bumpy vessels, rough figurative sculptures, bubbly tiles and more. Lee’s works blend references from ancient Jōmon pottery, Chinese vessels and altars familiar from her youth, and contemporary ceramic forms. The works are engaging and enigmatic on their own, each a small world of possibility. However, they are ignited with new meaning when viewers turn the corner and encounter a set of matching miniaturized versions of the same objects. Like a map and its corresponding territory, one is propelled to comparatively gaze back and forth, noting identifying markers, scale shifts, and the comforting sensation of orienting one’s body in space.
The small works in the interior niche are made up of experimental materials from the artist’s studio: glaze test tiles, one-off sculptures dictated by leftover scraps, samples from production lines. These small objects act as a set of “notes” for Lee, they are visual reminders of the steps and layers of glazes and firings that she took to arrive at a final form or surface application. Lee’s studio is full of reminders like these, akin to marginalia or post-it notes, a kind of physical shorthand that are full of meaning; they are her set of instructions for replication. In Blow Up, Lee once again follows each small set of directions, but comically so. Using them not merely as a set of steps to be applied to a new form, but literally repeating and enlarging the original tile, vessel, sculpture, etc – simply “blowing it up.” The effect is humorous, a kind of mis-use of test tiles, and a true glimpse into the maker’s process. Viewers are invited to note the perfect reproduction of certain glaze qualities, the minor discrepancies in surface application, the strangeness of something small made too large, or something large made petite.
Embedded in the presentation of Blow Up is the deep and complex relationship to process when working with clay, glaze and heat. The variations are infinite, and for a curious maker like Lee who works across art, design and commercial production, there is a complicated and invisible set of decisions that lead to final outcomes. Often relegated to the realm of the unseen, here Lee elevates those decisions, turning form into content, and pointing content right back to form.
Raina Lee is an artist and writer based in Los Angeles. She makes work based on personal memory and fantasy. Drawing upon science fiction, video games, and occurrences in the natural world, she creates landscapes through experimental glazes and alternative firing techniques. Glaze-making and experimentation is an integral part of her practice, as well as firing and re-firing works and watching the transformation of the surface and object. Recent shows include a solo exhibition Stroll Garden (Los Angeles), and group shows at Nucleus Gallery (Los Angeles) and Clayspace (Brooklyn). She has published a print zine, 1-Up MegaZine about the culture of gaming and technology and is the the author of Hit Me With Your Best Shot: The Ultimate Guide to Karaoke Domination.