Red Lodge Clay Center – Short-Term Resident (AIA) 2019
Annakatrin Burnham is a ceramic sculptor and installation artist. Based in Northern California, she is a ceramics lecturer at Cal Poly Humboldt. She holds a BA in Studio Art from Cal Poly Humboldt (2011) and an MFA from the Institute for Ceramics and Glass in Höher-Grenzhausen, Germany (2014). Burnham has a studio practice and exhibits internationally.
Working abstractly, Burnham is sensitive to her work’s connection with space. She develops aesthetics of fragility, playfulness and form association within her sculptures. Constructing parameters in which her creative impulses can thrive, Burnham pushes the conventional relationships with clay which allows spontaneity to then take a leading role in her work.
Existing within an environment of expressive freedom, I construct parameters in which my creative impulses can thrive. Establishing a set of rules in which spontaneity can then take a leading role is at the root of my work. Small parts that come together to form a whole in the manner of sculptures and installations is at the core of many of my pieces. From there, I feed a hunger for diversity by branching out in myriad ways across several bodies of work.
These diverging veins include analogue form making, installations with multiples and collaborating in public space. In the studio I address an internal space, mirroring the stages of life through expression. In my sculptures I investigate form languages, using not only the aesthetics of light and shadow but also negative space and shape association. After the development of certain guidelines, I then create space for actions of the moment to take precedence.
This way of working, contrasts my work in the public realm. Approaching shared environments comes with its own set of rules which establish a beginning. The most essential aspect of my work lies within my curiosity for material and variety of expression, depicting in all honesty the many folds of my person.