Fired and Glazed Earth Piece

Performance kiln/frunace, 10 ft. long, steel, ceramic fiber blanket, brick, propane, earth, glaze materials, Notre Dame University, South Bend, IN 1979.

Left: pre-firing

Middle: night firing

Right: kiln dismantled, cooled, fused state

Fired and Glazed Earth Piece, is the first larger environmental performance/ kiln work after a series of smaller experimental kilns and firing projects. This work has two stages, the first of purely firing the existing ground, is not shown. The second state, shown at right, is after a second firing and the layered placement of all powdered glaze materials available at the Notre Dame ceramic facility were fused in situ. In both cases the burner was placed in one end of the kiln, and left to reach a unknown temperature, the purpose being to let the kiln dynamics and natural forces (to the extent possible) determine the state of fusion of the materials, not a pre-determined formula or goal. The burner was left on until it appeared the kiln would no longer rise in temperature.

Furnace Projects, Constance Lewallan;

Kiln Projects: Material and Process Experiments in/of the Landscape, John Roloff