JAN 2025
An experiential ceramics installation for a Stanford Design Program tradition in which second year masters students create and display artifacts that represent themselves.
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Flavor as a function of time
Flavor may also refer to: connecting with others, nourishment, laughter, and all the other good stuff in life
Time may also refer to: care, intention, patience, rest, and just hanging out
This title is adapted from a phrase encountered in Ross Gay’s Inciting Joy by poet and essayist Patrick Rosal. “Flavor is a function of time.”
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For my personal statement, I wanted to push myself to make something big in ceramics, a medium that I am still practicing and learning. In my prior ceramics work, I tend to be too precious and risk averse with pieces - just shying away from walls that get thin, or leaving a bulk of clay at the bottom because I'm nervous the piece will collapse. I set an arbitrary goal of 100 tea cups, so I could throw fast and feel free to trial ideas without fear of waste.
Over the course of around 3 weeks, I threw, trimmed, glazed, and fired 117 cups (fearing I might lose some along the way) and built this wooden shelf of four 5x5 grids arranged in a partial decagon to display them.
my piece, titled: flavor as a function of time
On installation night, an annual event where our faculty, alumni, family, and friends gather at the Design Loft, visitors got to walk through, select a ceramic cup, and be served a couple sips of warm miso soup.
all 100 cups
serving soup
visitors engaging with piece
Each cup will find a new home at the conclusion of my time at Stanford with the people who have made my time in grad school so special.
Process Photos
sketches from shelf planning
in-progress shelf building
trimmed and ready for bisque fire
unloading the kiln
freshly unloaded cups
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Kerri Conlon for thinking through this idea with me, Richard Haley and the Sculpture Studio for woodworking and kiln space and help, and Susan at the Stanford Ceramics studio for a last minute glaze firing save.
kalinais@stanford.edu
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