Pit Fire Works

This series of ceramic vessels exploits the serendipity of the pit fire process to create intricate primordial surfaces. Lotte's infatuation with ceramics lies in an intrinsic connection to human material culture and the seemingly alchemical transformation that occurs when raw materials are subjected to the intense heat and unpredictability of the firing process. Pit firing is the most ancient and elemental method of making ceramics.

Using a depression in the earth to contain fire and retain heat, embers and smoke of combusting timber, collected seaweed and kitchen scraps, oxides and metals, come into direct contact with the porous ceramic surface.

Akin to an archeological dig, the pots are unearthed from the smouldering pit to reveal an indelible imprint of the primal, fiery process, at once completely random and unique but evocative of patterns of growth, decay or geological processes.

Lotte Schwerdtfeger primarily hand builds ceramics; both functional and sculptural - combining tendrils of research spanning historical traditions, biological processes and geological history. Drawn to ceramics by the immediate tactility and alchemical transformations of materials, Lotte takes an experimental approach to clay bodies and glazed surfaces to explore material determinism, simulation and continuous fluctuations of the material world. Undulating vessels evoking ambiguous biological structures are precarious and unpredictable - representative of the ecological systems humanity exploits and exists within. 

Lotte is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and JamFactory Ceramics Associate Program; regularly working on commissions, collaborative projects and exhibitions. 

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