Artist
Tümay Erman is a ceramic sculptor, based in Ä°zmir. She is a third-generation descendant of a family that migrated from Greece to Anatolia, a region at the cross roads of Asia and Europe and the cradle of cultures and civilizations. Tümay Erman earned a Bachelor's Degree in Ceramics and Glass from Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of FineArts in 1997 Ä°zmir. Between 2001-2002, she completed her studies at the English Language Academy, University of St. Maarten/NA, and obtained an MFA in Ceramics and Glass at Dokuz Eylül University's Instituteof Fine Arts in 2018 Ä°zmir. With 25 years of professional experience, she spent 15 years living and working in the St.Maarten / Caribbean, the United States. Since 2016, she has been pursuing her scientific research in ceramic chemistry and her artistic works as an independent artist in her own studio Ä°zmir/ Turkiye. Erman is also educator on ceramics and glaze chemistry currently, the artist shares her researches, experiences on ceramic chemistry glazes through workshops at national and internationally while also authoring a book on the subject.
My ceramic sculptures explore correlations and parallels, between the formative processes of the geological realm and the social dynamics that have formed human society, focusing especially on pressures impacting women’s lives. I draw analogies, between crystalline formations on the surfaces of glazes, caused by atomic bonding under the effect of heat, and social upheavals caused by the pressure of conflicts in human societies.
Growing up in a family of miners and geologists, I was tremendously inspired by pieces of crystals and metals brought home from mines in the Aegean region. I learned to recognize and identify these minerals which came to be a great source of inspiration for glaze recipes I later developed, using various raw materials mined from the earth. My ceramic works are based on the exploration of chemical elements that complement one another, and are in a constant state of flux, where opposing forces achieve equilibrium. These dynamics are observable at them olecular level, in the chemical structures of the glazes I create. Transformative and conflicting energetic interactions like these, which increase capacity for self-reinforcement, stabilization, and regeneration, are also present in the dynamics between individuals in human societies. Arguably of the most prevalent areas of discord in human affairs pertains to the position of women in patriarchal cultures. In societies where women’s freedoms of expression have been suppressed, a rich language of communication through artistic visual codes has been developed by them, to surmount this limitation. In conservative Anatolian societies, decorative motifs charged with symbolic meaning have been created in ingenuous ways by women, for whom open verbal expression has often been restricted. Their desires, joys, fears and hopes have been covertly expressed through these motifs, which have found their way into textiles, rugs, and embroideries. My sensitivity to and experience of societal restrictions imposed on women, is central to my artistic expression. Their struggle for security and independence, resistance to pressures to over perform and maintain humility, and devising coping strategies to mitigate the effects of political tensions, informs the visual language of my works which are metaphors for conflicting energies.
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The shapes of my biomorphic / metamorphic ceramic forms, are inspired by alignments of molecular configurations caused by the effect of heat and pressure on the glazes covering their surfaces, and allude to the microscopic building blocks at their core. In my latest works, where hand building, wheel throwing and mold pressing techniques have been used to shape porcelain and stoneware into biomorphic forms, I have developed and used my own mid-range and high-fire glazes (cone 7-10) to obtain shiny spikey and reflective crystalline glazes to create an aura of depth, tension, humor, hope, and nature’s multidimensional reverberations. On these forms and surfaces, I have developed a visual language that blends depth and shallowness, enhanced by the use of both shiny and matt glazes.
