Reverse - I

2023

Ceramics

14*24*15cm

Exhibition text by Michael Whittle:

Myron Lai has a highly creative approach to ceramics, gaining new knowledge through a
continual process of technically informed trial and error, much like the experimental
approaches of the alchemists of the past and material scientists of the present.

In explaining the title of the pieces he created for this exhibition, Myron describes how:
“‘Reverse’ experiments with the idea of swapping the roles of clay and glaze to reverse the
procedure of creating traditional ceramics. For these pieces, I used slip to cover up a body of
glaze, so that the clay slip has to follow the lead of the chaotic glaze”.
Whereas glazes are normally used to seal and colour clay in ceramics, Myron creates the
body of the work itself using various mixtures of glaze, reversing the traditional roles of
each material. By changing the temperature and time of the firing process, the results
become highly unpredictable and the outcome unknown until the door of the kiln has been
opened.

Often the works fail and disintegrate, but sometimes the results are spectacular and
surprising, as the glazes fracture, split, and warp to give the impression of broken icebergs,
freshly opened geodes or rare alchemical crystals. Myron described how his artistic practice
“is not chemistry, nor completely craft. It is a process of cultivating an intimate relationship
with the materials, a poetic love-hate relationship”.