Short Film on Sculptor Paula Winokur

We are consciously trying not to let ceramics and pottery take over, with an abundance of this type of content floating around the web currently it’s a very precise balancing act to maintain. Something that doesn’t come along every day however is an insightful short film that investigates the style and background of a ceramic artist, so I’m including this today as it may have been here there and everywhere come tomorrow. This features a charming creative named Paula Winokur who has taken the journey from fully fledged functional potter to sculptor and free form fanatic. Personally I found her work quite compelling, she is hugely inspired by a concept she explains as “bringing the outside in”, constantly referencing the natural world. Her latest project is typical of this, creating a large arrangement of jigsaw like pieces out of porcelain as a reaction to the Palisades rocks adjacent to the Hudson River.

An artist driven by the idea of raising awareness through her artwork, each project is meant to provoke either an admiration of something naturally beautiful or to highlight where collectively as human beings we are going wrong, for example in the video here she references unnatural climate change. Her message is commendable and what gives her the platform to share this is her undoubted talent in the material. I loved watching her put these shapes together, she makes everything look so easy and from first hand experience I know this not to be the case, I’ve no doubt this is the reward for years of dedication and repetition.

For those who haven’t dabbled in porcelain before, this is a very tactile and delicate material that doesn’t typically lend itself to larger scale designs like what Paula has put together. As she explains in the video below this is why you always see smaller objects made like bowls and cups. The monumental piece that Paula designs and makes in this film has been put together for Wave Hill public garden and cultural centre in New York, which hopefully will provides the coverage and people traffic that this project deserves. Once you’ve pressed play and taken in this short documentary I’d recommend a visit over to Paula’s personal website which has quite the archive of her previous work, much of this exhibited in museums and public places and rightfully so. Enjoy!

www.paulawinokur.com

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