A More Perfect Circle by Sari Carel at Powerhouse Arts

project overview

Sari Carel collaborated with the Ceramics team to create ceramic sculptures for her public art meditation A More Perfect Circle, commissioned and presented by the New York-based non-profit arts organization KODA. A More Perfect Circle is on view at Lentol Garden in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. In formulating the concept, Carel collaborated with Nicholas Hoynes, a PhD environmental science student, to research experiences related to the daily coffee cup routine and what patrons and employees of coffee shops think about engaging with single-use objects and tossing them away.

The ceramic sculptures, central to this installation, refer to the visual and sculptural properties of disposable coffee cups stacked rim-to-rim and hanging from fencing in the garden. These handmade, individualized pieces are in contrast to the mass manufactured coffee cup. During the exhibition’s run, plants grow around the sculptures where public programming takes place, engaging the neighborhood in multiple impactful ways.

After Sari Carel formulated the concept at Clay Space, she approached Powerhouse Arts for the final fabrication of these sculptures.The Ceramics team cast the sculptural cups and mixed the glazes. Carel proceeded with individually sculpting each slip-cast cup and applied the glazes herself. At the final stage, the Ceramics Team completed processing and firing. Carel had been a member of the Community Ceramics Studio at Powerhouse Arts prior to this fabrication project.

A More Perfect Circle is on display April–June 2024.

Project Team Members (Powerhouse Arts Staff): Brian Ferreira, Biata Roytburd, Katie Coughlin, Jeff Close, Eleni Kontos, Noah Heil

Project dates: November 2023-March 2024

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artist biography

Based in Brooklyn, New York, much of multi-media artist Sari Carel’s work focuses on translation from one modality to another. Her projects consider interspecies communication, relationships between people and place, and how the senses inform our perception. Also an environmental activist, Sari is a sharp observer of ecosystems, be they natural or human.

Carel’s work has been exhibited and screened internationally in venues such as Artists Space, Dumbo Arts Festival, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, and Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in New York; LAX Art and Young Projects in Los Angeles; Genia Schreiber University Gallery in Tel Aviv, and Haifa Museum of Art in Israel and Locust Projects in Miami. She has been awarded numerous fellowships and residencies, including AIR at the Stundars Museum, Finland; AIR Vienna; the Socrates Sculpture Park Artist Fellowship and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Residency on Governors Island, New York; and the Bundanon Residency, in Australia.

Recent exhibitions include The Sun Is A Mouth Of Blue at Melanie Flood Projects, Portland, OR, The Shape Of Play, a public art project in Boston’s North End, and Mud Songs For Anni at The Schneider Museum Of Art’s Art Beyond in Ashland, OR.