In playing god to the lawn, Nanaimo-based artist, Maya Florey contemplates the metaphysical structure of ecosystem through a series of biomorphic ceramic sculptures. By juxtaposing elements from plants, animals, rocks and fungi, Florey crafts a dreamlike landscape that is both abstract and familiar, inviting the viewer to consider their perception of the world around them.

Working within the context of contemporary ceramics, Florey utilizes the vessel form to contemplate the continuity of form between the internal and external. This is not a stark binary but a smooth undulation that can cradle the world. A co-mingling that reflects the experience of becoming embodied in a world distorted by time. In playing god to the lawn, Florey stretches and distorts the topology of the vessel, creating forms that question rigid ways of thinking tied to oppressive systems of power.

The sculptures in this exhibition often reference the dialogue between the mind and the world, in which the body becomes a sort of liminal space between the two. Referencing philosopher Martin Heidegger’s concept of ‘The Thing’, there is no beginning or end to the work, as it is not confined to the physical space that is taken up by the sculpture and instead expands into the surrounding area, transforming it.

The work also alludes to the surrealist movement, particularly artists such as Remedios Varo, Ithell Colquhoun and Leonor Fini whose fantastical worldbuilding embodied a compassionate futurism. These artists and thinkers were well ahead of their time with their ideas around gender fluidity and expression. 80 years later, at yet another time of political unrest and ecological uncertainty, their legacy resonates powerfully. Like the surrealists, Florey offers an aesthetic language that resists containment, embracing a world in flux.

Clay is a uniquely somatic medium to work in. Its memory provides a visualization of the way that the body remembers, touch made permanent during the firing process. During their six month residency at Medalta, an international artist residency program in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Florey conducted extensive research into sculptural glazes. By combining crushed rocks, clays, ash, minerals and oxides, a pallete of glazes is developed. Some of the pieces were fired atmospherically, using vaporized salt, soda and wood to create unique surfaces, patterns and textures.

Inspired by the mathematical and physical rhythms that guide the spontaneous growth of the world, playing god to the lawn draws upon Florey’s extensive studies of anatomy and the natural world. The forms are twisted, constricted and distended by time and entropy, repeating and mirroring to form uncanny matrices. The seen and unseen are in conversation, with emotion and being impressed upon the physicality of the world.