Forced from Inside and Outside: Pillar, Vessel, and Brick Kiln Base

Brie Ruais’s Forced from Inside and Outside: Pillar, Vessel, and Brick Kiln Base is a symbolic ceramic self portrait. Two ceramic forms – one pillar and one low vessel – were made from distinct blocks of clay that each weighed 300 lbs, representing the combined weight of Ruais and her partner. Through an intimate and physical process, each block has become an embodiment of the couple as public ephemera to a private performance.

Ruais created the pillar by pressing and pushing the outer edges of the clay upward, extending it to the physical limit of both the clay and the artist. Conversely, Ruais created the vessel by clawing and digging from block’s center. The resulting ceramics were fired outdoors – an action made evident by the charred brick floor included in the installation. Here at Socrates, Forced from Inside and Outside: Pillar, Vessel, and Brick Kiln Base is at once final product and relic of the performative process that brought it into existence

Many thanks to Benjamin Cohen and Kevin Thomas.