project overview
As a recipient of the 2026 Powerhouse Arts Artist Subsidy Program, Coral Saucedo Lomeli collaborated with the Powerhouse Arts Ceramic Studio to fabricate Agua Viva, a site-responsive outdoor installation composed of a continuous channel of handmade glazed ceramic elements embedded directly into the landscape.
Drawing inspiration from drainage systems, irrigation channels, and other overlooked forms of infrastructure, Agua Viva explores water as both a material and a force that shapes the spaces we inhabit. The installation extends Saucedo Lomeli's ongoing interest in thresholds, porous boundaries, and the relationship between built environments and natural systems. Embedded within the landscape, the ceramic channel transforms the ground into an active surface that suggests movement, accumulation, and leakage, inviting viewers to reconsider the infrastructures that quietly organize everyday life.
The project was developed in close collaboration with the Ceramics Studio staff, beginning with a series of small maquettes that were used to refine and finalize the overall form. Saucedo Lomeli provided wood and canvas sling molds, while the Powerhouse Arts Ceramics Studio produced slabs using a red stoneware clay body. Each slab was hand-cut to size, laid into the molds, and carved using a custom template developed collaboratively by the artist and the fabrication team.
Once the forms were established, the tiles were coated with white slip to create a bright foundation for the matte light terracotta-pink glaze custom formulated for the project. To achieve the precise color envisioned by the artist, the Ceramics team tested more than fifty glaze recipes before arriving at the final formulation. Each piece was glazed by pouring and fired to cone 6 oxidation, resulting in the handmade ceramic elements that comprise Agua Viva.
Agua Viva is on view as part of At Sixes and Sevens from June 20 through September 6, 2026, at Bundy Modern in Waitsfield, Vermont. The group exhibition features ten artists presenting site-specific works throughout the grounds and interior spaces of Bundy Modern.
For more information about the At Sixes and Sevens, visit: https://www.atsixesandsevens-sculpture.com/
For more information on Powerhouse Art’s Artist Subsidy Program, please visit: https://powerhousearts.org/fabrication/artist-subsidy-program
Materials & Dimensions:
Glazed ceramic handmade tiles
35 ft × 22 in × 1 ft
Project timeline:
Feb 23, 2026 – Sep 6, 2026
Commissioner/Funder/Presenter(s):
Agua Viva is presented as part of the group exhibition At Sixes and Sevens, on view from June 20 through September 6, 2026, at Bundy Modern in Waitsfield, Vermont. Powerhouse Arts is grateful to the Arts and Letters Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and Wolf Kahn Foundation for generously supporting the Artist Subsidy Program.
_72dpi.jpg)
