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Matter of Healing borrows its method from psychotherapist Hans Deuser who invented a novel form of clay therapy wherein a patient, eyes closed, intuitively sculpts wet clay and a therapist bears witness. Like its predecessor, sand play therapy, Arbeit am Tonfeld^® (or Work at the Clay Field^®) uses the box as a frame inside of which the psyche can unveil itself.

My project appropriations this therapeutic method as a mode for making art. Following the lines of my previous work—which decontextualizes materials and theories from psy-sciences, and reframes them in performance, installation, and photography— this project recontexualizes a psycho- and sensory therapeutic mode querying the divide between studio art practice and therapy. Thus, I explore art therapy’s practices, methods, and history, looking to see what this can also reveal about art’s relationship with clay and therapy’s relationship with art.

The small exhibition of works, in this case, will be the outcome of 7-months at a clay studio called Ceramic Kingdom in Neukölln and will include fired outcomes of this experiment. The sculptural drawings appear like large tiles but were instead formed in the clay field as a process of artistic research and self-discovery. I am open to discussing how to display 3-6 tiles and if we would like to include a sand play tray. The exhibition will be paired with a short self-reflexive text.