little deaths
Murray Wittmeier
LRT Space Exhibition
16.10.2024 - 13.11.2024
Opening reception October 18 @6PM
The artist works primarily in the medium of ceramics, specifically wheel throwing. They make various miniature items ranging from jars to gravestones. They also create functional dinnerware; things like large coffee/soup mugs and bowls with graphic text on the surface. Favoring a dark color palette, the artist utilizes the magic of ceramics and the fire of the kiln to achieve dynamic surfaces, most notably metallics and bright reds. Inspired by concepts such as the human body/anatomy, mortality and morbidity, surrealism, and dollhouses, the artist aims to search for clarity and control over the uncontrollable and unknown. Through miniature scale, they navigate abject ideas and intense internal emotions.
As a genderqueer person I feel like I had to kill off many small parts of myself in order to make room for new parts of my identity to form. I use the idea of the clown as a vehicle to move through the confusing and uncomfortable feelings of not fitting in your body, and not fitting with the cis-hetero normativity that was imposed upon me. For me, gender is a performance that mimics that of a clown; putting on a face and costume to appease the masses.