Collision I.02. is made in a proprietary labour-intensive blending technique, mixing two stonewares of different colours and textures into a smooth gradient. The resulting blend is then shaped to form a fabric-like movement, as if they were created by the collision with the spheres on top. The spheres are also made of clay and glazed with a metallic shiny glaze. High-fired at 1250 degrees Celsius, 100% water resistant. Made by hand with high quality stoneware locally sourced around Barcelona. Framed in a floating frame with a metal frame hook to put on the wall. This series of works is based on an idea of violent clash of the opposites - objects, ideas, feelings, as an origin of something new. A place and moment of transformation where two or more entities collide to change each other forever. The clash, violent or gentle, sudden or imperceivably slow; always has a ripple effect on its surrounding. Collision is a catalyst of every transformation and often also its end - growth and destruction linked and intertwined. In the moment, frozen (or rather congealed by fire) in movement, there’s no way of knowing which it would be. The change is inevitable but its judgement as positive or negative is forever suspended. I am drawn to the ambiguity, to the impossibility of final assessment. The moment is what interests me, not necessarily its consequences. I capture the tension between hardness and softness, matte and lustre.

Maryia Virshych

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Maryia Virshych (b. 1989, Minsk, BY) received her Design Research MA from the Bau Design College in Barcelona, Spain (2016) and a BA in Architecture from Belarusian National Technical University (2012). She completed a Ceramics and Glass program at Escola Massana (Barcelona, ES) in 2024. Maryia has a background in architecture, space and product design, and craft, all of which reflect on her current work. She held positions as a creative at several design and art studios in Barcelona. In 2019, she started her own artistic practice - virmary, working primarily with clay. Maryia received numerous awards, such as the Design Award from the Royal Society of Art and the Residency Award from Domaine de Boisbuchet. In 2024 Maryia was a finalist at the XXXI Competition of Contemporary Ceramics Grottaglie and National Sculpture Prize Maria Belen Morales. She showed her work at various collective exhibitions: Ceramics Museum (Grottaglie. IT), Malta Society of Art (Valetta, MT), CICA Museum (Gimpo, KR), Thrown Gallery (London, UK), Site Brooklyn (New York City, USA), Palais Galerie (Neuchatel, CH), Sala d’Art Jove (Barcelona, ES), Cluster Crafts (London, UK) and others.