Sasa Martinovic Kunovic
- City
- Zagreb
- Country
- Croatia
I am Saša, I live in Zagreb, Croatia. I’ve been studying painting at the Art Education Department at Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb, and for a long time painting was my main artistic activity.
But for the last ten or more years, I was more and more interested in Ceramics.
Usually I work with different sorts of clay; often with chamotte, because they look more natural. I like a technique of wood firing because of ash which integrates in clay.
I often find some fragments of ceramics-old bricks, tiles, samples of soil, and combine them into art pieces. This is sort of ready-made element and for me, it has some information about local history of that specific place that I am present at that moment. Usually these pieces are not functional, not glazed, and not intend to be only beautiful, but more meaningful.
Clay (soil) as a medium has such many possibilities for experimenting and combining with other materials. Also, elements of Nature are always present as an inspiration. My favourite technique is wood-fired ceramics. Last year I am trying to learn to do some pieces from porcelain-not ceramics for use, but more llike keramosculpure. Exploring and combining different sorts of materials is inspiring.
Also, if I am present in some city, I will try to capture something specific to that location in my work. So Matera is special challenge for me.
Artworks
This is the piece that I am working on, presently. It combines some ancient fragments (that I bought on the flea market) and some new-my work of art in clay, the dish which is wood-fired and with some natural texture (so it also looks as it was from ancient times).
This piece aims to present awakening. Like it is a springtime, and from land and soil, there are some bulbs with cracks, and from that cracks soon it will start to grow a new plant. Also, these hols- like some wounds, are marked with red colour (red glaze) , because new life always comes with certain pain or with force.
This is just one bowl in technique of wood fired ceramics, that I am very fond of. It has not have nice edge, but one that looks like it's cracked a little bit. Usualy, things that we can see in nature, are not with smooth edges.
This work is called Shell. It's broken one. Shells are usually fragile, like people and their emotions. Usualy I imagine this work in grass or some other natural ambient.