Intervessels 2025 - ongoing
"In each Intervessel pairing, two ceramic volumes are fused into one unit—not materially, but via soundwaves. What generates their sound is exchanges of air that create unique, resonant tones inside each vessel’s hollowed forms. We listen and attune ourselves to their shifting tonalities while we take in the same oxygen. The specificities of their biomorphic cavities—their curvatures and dimensionality, the density of their walls and vacuousness of their openings—enter into a backforth via soundwaves that bounce off their undulating surfaces. Swartz repeatedly fires her clay vessels draped in thin layers of copper (also a terrestrial material), which spreads and fuses into metallic patternings that read like electrified lichen. Copper, of course, is the prized conductor found in speaker systems, and here it intensifies the passage of sound throughout these earthen amplifiers.
Swartz uses a feedback process, essentially recordings of the vessels speaking to each other on repeat, to locate the bespoke tone produced inside each vessel—its audible fingerprint. No sound from outside the vessel itself is introduced, thus each interlocking pair functions as a two-chambered instrument with its voices operating in tandem."
-Liz Munsell, from Attunements
https://www.rvacollective.org/activities-all/julianne-swartz-attunements
Intervessel (gathering), Intervessel (shielding), 2026
Unglazed stoneware, copper, electronics, sound generated from the objects
20 x 24 x 18 inches
Photo by Radiant Gradient.
Intervessel (gathering), 2026
Unglazed stoneware, copper, electronics, sound generated from the objects
20 x 24 x 18 inches
Photo by Radiant Gradient.
Intervessel (shielding), 2026
Unglazed stoneware, copper, electronics, sound generated from the objects
20 x 24 x 18 inches
Photo by Radiant Gradient.
Attunements, 2026
installation view at Al Held Foundation, Boiceville, NY
Photo by Alon Koppel
Attunements, 2026
installation view at Al Held Foundation, Boiceville, NY
Photo by Alon Koppel
Intervessel (feeding), Intervessel (leaning), Intervessel (seeking), 2025
Installation view at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
Photo by Gabby Usinger
Intervessel (feeding), Intervessel (seeking), 2026
Installation view at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
Photo by Gabby Usinger