CRISTINA FIORENZA ^©  

(Napoli, 1970)

Stoneware with lava glaze

45 x 25 cm

Fly Vessel is a work inspired by Gothic architecture and the terminal pinnacles of sacred buildings and representative palaces. The “flies,” abstract elements within the piece, symbolically reference the bees of Palazzo Barberini, merging historical references with contemporary imagination. The work is created using the coil-building technique; the flies are then applied with slip — a fluid suspension of clay used as a ceramic binder — resulting in a three-dimensional structure that produces a refined interplay of reliefs, interlocking forms, and contrasts of light and shadow. The glaze is made from a mixture of two lava glazes and copper oxide, an original formulation by the artist that is not commercially available.