For the Clay slides I rolled out the clay very thinly and then illuminated and enlarged it with slide viewers. In this way, the fine structures of the material and its deformations through drying can be observed.
From the Series Clay Studies:
In Clay Studies, Simone Kessler has concentrated entirely
on the material clay, aiming to create something temporary,
something that lives and continues to develop. The starting
point for her series of works was her piece Boden, a 50-square-
meter room with a smooth floor made of earth-moist clay.
The artist had brought 3.5 tons of raw material by trailer from
a Hessian clay pit to the exhibition space and spread it out
on the floor in painstaking manual labor until a flat surface
was created. In the exhibition, the clay surface could be viewed
but not walked on. Kessler was primarily concerned with
the spatial effect of the material and the confrontation with
its transformation process. After the exhibition, she tore the
work down: crushed to powder and mixed with water, the clay
became a mass with homogeneous color and new suppleness
again. It serves as a raw material for subsequent works.
The objects created from the recycled clay are once again entirely
dedicated to the material and its processes of change.
The unpreservable state of the material is an important subject
in the series Clay Studies.