In Conversation With: Elif Uras
In Conversation With: Elif Uras
What stories do you hope your work tells beyond the material itself?
“I want to tell stories about the world we live in and make connections across time and geography. In my recent work, I have been focusing on themes that have historically been excluded from the center of the art world, and often even erased, such as everyday life, domestic labor, caregiving practices, and craft. I am especially interested in the kinds of invisible labor that women have historically undertaken, work that has rarely been acknowledged or valued. I try to research and make these forms of labor visible.”
What does the physical act of shaping matter with your hands bring into your process?
“We are now moving without brakes toward a post-human future shaped by AI. Thankfully, the hand-made, materiality and craft is one area that cannot be dominated or controlled by this modality. I think hand-made objects have a special aura that cannot be replicated with anything fabricated or machine-made. I was making ceramic works and drawing and painting on them for years, but my relationship went into another gear when I took up the wheel and began manipulating wet clay. The visceral connection between mind, body and matter made me fall in love with the material.”
When a form finally reveals itself, what does that moment mean to you? What does the dialogue between surface, glaze, and form reveal to you as an artist?
"It usually starts with an idea, and for a while, my focus is entirely on the form. Once the form is complete, it “reveals itself” and becomes available as a pictorial surface. Sometimes, certain forms naturally lend themselves to more narrative imagery. Others already tell a story through their shape alone, so their surfaces are better suited to abstract or optical patterns."
What inspired your transition from clay’s delicacy to marble’s permanence?
“Clay can be fragile if not cared for properly, but it is also remarkably permanent, much like stone. This helps explain why so many artistic treasures that remain from prehistory are made of clay or stone. The type of high-fire clay I work with in New York is called stoneware, which I interpret as being as strong and enduring as stone.
I started working with marble when I had the opportunity to create my first outdoor sculpture. It’s very difficult to work with ceramics at a large scale, especially since I wanted the piece to be nearly three meters tall. Wet weather is also unkind to ceramic surfaces, which are often porous and prone to erosion over time.
I’m also drawn to the movement and texture within stone and marble. The veins often resemble something bodily, almost like skin or muscle. Both clay and stone come from the earth and that has a lot of resonance for me.”
Your Sitting Bather (2023) in grey-white Muğla marble originally began as a small ceramic figure. What stirred you to reimagine that delicate form in the permanence of marble?
“The form for Sitting Bather was inspired by a prehistoric female figurine from the Neolithic site of Tepe Sarab in Iran. I originally produced it as a ceramic sculpture.
The marble version came about when I was invited by Anlam de Coster to produce site-specific work for an exhibition at Zeyrek Çinili Hamam in Istanbul in 2023. The hammam is a magnificent architectural marvel from the 16th century, which was recently renovated and entirely clad in marble. I immediately knew I wanted to scale up my sculptural ceramic vessels that represent archetypal depictions of the female body. I wanted them to resemble life-size women gathered, enjoying this communal experience of togetherness and exchange. The work, titled Chamber of Whispers, included three marble sculptures — Sitting Bather, Standing Bather, and Reclining Bather — all made from different types and colors of marble. Marble seemed to me the perfect material for this site. The sculptures seemed to have come out of the DNA of the hammam.”
“It’s remarkable that technology can translate an algorithm into physical form. If you have a three-dimensional drawing, you can produce a form at virtually any scale, which brings an extraordinary sense of freedom. Also, carving a solid block by subtracting material is the exact opposite of making ceramics, which relies on hollow forms. I’m grateful to work on both ends of this spectrum.”
How do you balance intuition and discipline when engaging with a raw or solid material?
“What fascinates me is that engaging with raw marble at Alpa.lab is so different from most of my work in clay. Ceramics are entirely handmade, hand shaped. This has been my customary mode of working for so long that it was quite a change to use a mechanical tool that takes care of all the skill that goes into shaping a piece. It’s incredible how technology allows this form of fabrication, where you can reproduce a form by translating an algorithm into physicality. There’s an amazing amount of freedom that comes with knowing you can produce a form at any scale, if you have a three-dimensional drawing. Also, taking a solid block and shaping it by chiseling away is the exact opposite of making ceramics, which requires hollow forms. I’m grateful to be able to work on both ends of this spectrum of artmaking.”
Looking ahead, are there materials you feel drawn to but haven’t yet explored? If one material is already set to shape your next project, what excites you most about working with it?
“My practice currently revolves around clay. I find it magical and transformative. The process is challenging and mind bending, with many accidental discoveries. There’s so much to experience and learn when it comes to clay that a lifetime is not enough. Like stone it’s connection to prehistory as well as the earth is very important.”
In Earth on Their Hands, on view at Galerist through November 8, how do you translate the focus on women into form, surface, and iconography without becoming didactic? What kind of gaze or sense of agency do you aim to construct for the viewer?
