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Jeff Schmuki: Extractive Figures
Jeff Schmuki’s Extractive Figures stages environmental collapse through ceramic tableaus that place found porcelain figurines, commonly associated with kitsch but once tied to status, etiquette, and hierarchy, within unstable biomorphic landscapes where organic growth intertwines with forms borrowed from mining infrastructure and extraction technologies. Recast as agents of destruction shaped by systems of extraction and excess, the figures inhabit shifting environments where natural and industrial forms converge. They serve as both participants in and witnesses to worlds unraveling under the weight of their exploitative actions. Through Extractive Figures, Schmuki uses ceramics to explore the connections between ecological systems, cultural history, and the materials that shape everyday life.
Two Identical Souls. 12.5” x 11” x 11”
Brood. 16” x 11” x 12”
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Under A Blue Moon. 14.5” x 9.5” x 10”
AshLand. 15.5” x 13” x 12”
Angelus. 23" x 10" x 14"
Arduino Pair
Programmed and remote-controlled two-wheel Arduino robots. Blending new technology with hand-built and found ceramics, these works can be taken into public space and handed over for others to drive and spin creating opportunities for social engagement. Works also can rest stationary on a pedestal or shelf.
Undoings #5 & #8
^2 hand-built and found ceramics with sculptural glazes. 11" h
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Arduino Figurine Waltz
Arduino Porcelain Figurines Created during a CRETA Rome Residency in Rome, Italy. Inspired by Rome’s collision of the eternal and contemporary, found porcelain figurines are recontextualized and refashioned. As a result, their superficial nature is obscured. Placed onto remote-controlled Arduino platforms and driven in the street gives the figurines life beyond their mass-produced, static origins and reinserts them into the life of the city.
Special Thanks to the Piano Society for the use of Fredrick Chopin's Waltz in E-flat major recorded by Vetter, H.