kelley eggert          
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Statement

Sex is why most of the planets organisms exist. Sexual reproduction is the key to evolution and the strongest instinct encoded in the genetics of all living things. Genetic continuation is power. In pursuit of strong triumphant offspring, lives have been lost in battle, banished from hierarchal societies and worked to death while caring for kin. From the smallest of unconscious organisms to the conscious masters of the food chain, one common desire persists, that is to copulate, populate and flourish.

Through evolution, successful individuals within a species have developed behaviors to enable fertilization and the rearing of a new generation. Reproductive behaviors vary greatly, yet they are all geared to lure, trap, manipulate or impress a possible mate.  Once fertilization has occurred, some degree of protection, nurture and care must be carried out. My ceramic sculptures exploit the ways in which the plant and animal kingdom procreates.

All life depends on vegetation. Aside from the earths’ elements, plants do not need any other life form to exist. They are the foundation. Through millions of years of collaboration, a large number of insects and plants have evolved together to furnish each other’s needs. The plant and insect relationship is an intricate and complex bionetwork. I create hybrids based on the formal and behavioral characteristics of this closed system.

Flowers, the botanical source of my ceramic sculptures, experience sex, pregnancy and post-natal care. The genitalia are open and effectively placed to flaunt, advertise and appeal to the pollinating agent. Active persuasion on the flowers part is needed to accomplish pollen exchange. The successful ovary will bear fruit to protect the young and use yet another set of strategies to spread the seed.

Insects exist on impulse and instinct. They function solely by genetic encoding. An arthropods ability to learn is extremely limited and arguably non-existent. They are machines performing a job they are programmed to do. Along with the purely instinctual traits of the insects, I use them to represent ideas of human social, psychological and political systems.

My sculptural hybrids are scaled to an intimate dimension.  I use my relationship with nature as a model and invite my viewer to marvel at the intricacy and complexity of its parts. I use detail and ambiguity to stir the imagination and generate wonder about the function and existence of the creature. The clay forms are created utilizing all hand-building techniques including building solid and with slabs, coiling, pinching and pressing clay into plaster molds. The clay is low fired with underglaze and luster and finished with cold surfaces such as acrylic paint, nylon flocking, silicone, plastic resin and monofilament.