Artist Talk and Closing Exhibit Reception with Elaine Olafson Henry

Sheridan College kicks off the fall season for the Whitney Center for the Arts with a special artist talk and closing reception featuring Elaine Olafson Henry’s “50 Bowls/50 States/50 Woodfires” exhibit. This event is free and open to the public and will begin with her presentation at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 5., with the reception shortly following. Refreshments will be provided during the reception.

Her exhibit, which is currently on display at the college in the Edward A. Whitney Gallery, features 50 different porcelain bowls; each were made from the same clay block, forming process, and glaze – and then sent to a ceramist in each state to be woodfired under different conditions. In a Ceramics Monthly article that she wrote about creating the exhibit, Henry said that the idea came to her when she sent two bowls to a wood kiln in Massachusetts. While they were nearly identically created with the same clay and glaze, they appeared surprisingly different after being fired in the same kiln, but in separate chambers. “Their experiences made them unique,” she wrote. From there, she was inspired and continued to make the bowls for this special exhibit.

Henry noted that when she carefully sent out the bowls across the country, she didn’t make any requests or suggestions to the kiln masters. She only asked for them to fill out a standard form detailing their firing process, which is written next to each bowl on display.
“Giving up control was an important part of the project,” she wrote. “Although abstract as a grouping of bowls, the vessels in this body of work will remain together, negating their function of receiving contents, but speaking out silently in individual as well as unified voices.”

Henry is a ceramics artist, curator, writer, proofreader, local volunteer, and trustee of Sheridan College who has had her work published, exhibited, and collected across the world.
For more information about this event or to see the full schedule of events, please visit www.sheridan.edu/arts.