About

Joshua Clukey works with local clays to develop clay bodies and firing techniques that reference the brick making and red-ware traditions of coastal Maine while taking inspiration from the glacially altered landscapes that surround him. Through foraging and experimentation with various local mineral inclusions his practice has been suspended within this material and historical research.   

  Bricks are storytellers. They communicate a history of place and change, of capitalism and colonization. The early brick buildings of coastal Maine were made from the Presumpscot formation - clay deposited in an ancient sea that flooded the land inwards as the last glaciers retreated.  Concealed within these bricks is the geological history of massive ice sheets, so weighted that they compressed the continental margin beneath them. Like the land they come from these clay bodies are compressions of time and value in tactile objects. 

Through his practice, Josh seeks to tell this story of people, land and expansive timelines. Creating ceramics that compel the holder to see their surrounding environment through a new lens and timescale. Objects that, at their best, facilitate new relationships and reciprocities to the ecology and sociology of Maine.