"I want the experience of looking at my work to be similar to the process of making it: a constant shift in scale where the viewer's gaze repeatedly moves from the entire object to something more detailed."
Inspired by nature, art, and the materiality of the clay, Oriel Zinaburg's sculptural objects embody the characteristics of the creative process: an open-ended journey where the final piece is the result of a series of unpremeditated actions. To retain this sense of open-endedness, he uses a collage-like technique - piecing the fragments together by intuition. He starts the process with techniques like press moulds and slab building, and while the clay is still soft, he tears, folds, and distorts it before firing in the kiln. The materiality of the clay dictates the way in which the folds take shape.
Oriel's 'LOT' series was inspired by the biblical story of Lot's wife who froze and became a pillar of salt after looking back at Sodom. Influenced by the desert environment, rock formation and sandy dunes, like layers of stratigraphy, the notion of time and movement is represented by the colour and combination of different types of clay.
Oriel was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. He studied fine art at the Bezalel Academy for Fine Art & Design in Jerusalem when he was awarded the Eileen Gray Scholarship to train at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. His ceramic practice began in 2015 and he currently works from his studio in East London.