Emma Scully Gallery is proud to present ‘A Year Without a Kiln,’ a non-ceramic translation of artist and designer Simone Bodmer-Turner’s multi-contextual practice premiering May 2, 2024.
Serving as a topography of self, this inherently personal showcase invites viewers into Bodmer-Turner’s inner landscape during a time of immense transition and creative incubation. Imbued with a sense of kinetic curiosity, each object presented is a marker in a year (2023) when the artist moved her life and practice from an apartment and studio in Brooklyn, New York to a New England farmhouse and orchard in Massachusetts. During this time, Bodmer-Turner didn’t have access to her kiln, the primary tool behind her clay creations. With this absence, she was presented with the metamorphic opportunity to introduce – or in some cases, revisit – different materials into her designs. Collaborating with local artisans and masters of their craft, Simone has been able to experiment with bronze, wood, lacquer and silk, developing a body of non-ceramic work.
In juxtaposition with her more abstract expressions, ‘A Year Without a Kiln’ reads more like one’s living room than a gallery of untouchable objects. A slip-covered sofa, large coffee table and sideboard-shaped pedestals anchor the space, highlighting the lighting, side tables, and decorative objects, on display – all in conversation with the emotional energy of what it means, feels, and looks like to create a sense of place and a feeling of home. “This work came out of a certain moment of life where I was, and am, making my first true home – a home I intend to grow into and build for a lifetime,” explains Bodmer-Turner. “It’s also a direct result of my perpetual rumination on how a place can be deeply influential on both the design of a space and a body of work born out of it.”
