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The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.
Ceramics Monthly: What role does color play in your work?
Olga Siruk: Color plays one of the central roles in my practice. I am constantly working with my palette and most often trying to reduce it. I love color and always want to use it to its fullest, so I consciously limit myself, keeping only those tones that truly work with the form.
I hope to arrive at a small system of core colors, something like a set of “notes” from which endless combinations and rhythms can be created.
For me, color is a language that can tell stories without words. It affects the viewer directly on a sensory level, even before any rational explanation appears.
At the moment, I am particularly inspired by the bold color language of Natalia Goncharova, especially her stage designs for the Ballets Russes as well as by folk art and traditional ornamental patterns.
CM: What do you see as the current trends in ceramics, and where do you see yourself in that field?
OS: I think one noticeable tendency in ceramics today is a growing interest in cultural identity. Many artists are looking more closely at their roots and reinterpreting traditions through a contemporary artistic language.
As a recent immigrant, I am interested in understanding and reinterpreting traditional Russian folk crafts as part of my own cultural background. My practice explores how inherited traditions change meaning when they move into a new cultural context.
This interest also connects me to the historical moment of the early twentieth century, when many Russian artists, writers, and composers found themselves living and working abroad and redefining their cultural identity. I am particularly inspired by the artistic environment that formed around the Ballets Russes.
Learn more at www.olgasiruk.com or follow on Instagram @sirukdesign.
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